Book Bub

 I'm taking time out from social media and also reading the news.  It was pushing my stress levels too high (though DW is much better in this regard than Facebook is).

 

But having picked up yet another Pratchett ebook at a low price and another book that looks interesting for under a quid, I suppose I ought to mention it.

 

https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/free-ebooks  allows you to sign up for a mailing list (I limit it to one post a week, as it's too much if they send it daily) that tells you of discounted books on Kobo and Amazon.

 

They're usually popular old classics like Pratchett (that I've already paid for in paper form, so feel no guilt about getting a cheap copy), popular books that have already sold in vast numbers and are now on a brief offer for those who weren't tempted at full price (just read a really interesting biography of Captain Cook that is not something I'd previously have considered reading), and occasionally books that are newly released and they're hoping to generate publicity by getting positive reviews.  I suspect many of the books listed on their website fall into that category.

 

You can tell it what kind of books you prefer, so I get mostly offers for SF/fantasy/non-fiction/bestsellers.  Getting a selection of about ten a week works for me, and I suspect I'm buying about one a fortnight. (I bought two this week, one Pratchett and one by an author I've never tried, but looked interesting)

 

I'm also spending more time reading books in the time that was previously wasted doom-scrolling FB and the newspapers!

The Ghosts of Merry Hall - review

 

 

 

Disclaimer - I'm a good friend of the author -but if I hadn't genuinely liked the book, I'd simply have avoided writing a review.

I had high exceptions, as I know Heather - MA in creative writing, judge for the Carnegie medals, etc.
But, also :) far more importantly from where I stand - she's an excellent musician for longsword dancing!

I've done a fair bit of editing work in my life, so I tend to evaluate novels on both how well written they are, and how much I enjoyed the story.

Ghosts of Merry Hall is very well written

You can always tell which character is narrating. Firstly because a new chapter starts whenever this changes, and secondly because they have really distinctive voices.

You learn about Nell - a mother with a teenage daughter who is recently separated from her husband, and Dolly the ghost, by the way they view the world around them.

Dolly desperately wants to make contact with someone, to tell the story of what happened in the past, but making contact with the living is hard. And every effort leaves them more scared and less likely to want to remain in Merry Hall...

As the haunting gets more intense, the atmosphere gets tenser and tenser.

We learn about the past through Dolly's memories - and very interesting memories they are - but Dolly in the present day is desperate for those memories to be more widely know, even if there is a cost to the living.

It's interesting. As a reader, I'm sympathetic to Dolly, but I'm very glad I'm nowhere near her!

I don't normally read ghost stories - I don't really like being scared... So, for me, the book is only a four. But for someone who enjoys a good haunting, it may well be a five.


PS. I love the cover art. It was nice working through the story and realising where each element in the artwork had come from in the story