Abbie | ab_reads's Reviews > The Ghost Notebooks

Don’t you just love it when you go into a book basically blind and it ends up being all the better for it? For some reason I had convinced myself that The Ghost Notebooks was pure historical fiction, and indeed there is a historical element to it, but it’s more of a literary ghost story and such a unique book!
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The story begins with Nick and Hannah realising their lives are in desperate need of a shake up, so Hannah accepts a job as caretaker of a historical house in the country, a museum dedicated to informing people about the life of an eccentric 19th century philosopher whose life was marred by tragedy. At first they revel in the adventure of it, but soon Hannah starts acting strangely, hearing whispers in the night, until one morning Nick awakes to find her simply gone.
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As well as the spiritual element, Dolnick also presents us with a heartbreaking portrayal of grief. I didn’t cry, but some passages were so beautiful and raw that I just had to sit there and think on them for a while. Yet the book isn’t overrun with emotion - the narrator, Nick, has a great sense of humour and some of his asides in the first person narration were so funny, but the humour didn’t feel out of place in this otherwise dark story.
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It’s not a horror novel per se, but there are some chills - or maybe that’s just me being a wimp! I’d say there’s a tinge of unease running through it, and Dolnick does well to express the grief, madness and obsession his characters are experiencing.
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For a quiet yet haunting read playing on psychological and supernatural fears, I would definitely recommend this one!
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Thank you to @sumaiyya.books for sending me this one!