Author: Matt Rood
Links: Amazon UK | US
Summary from Amazon: Anon is a ghost who has been voted as the Residential Assistant living in a decaying mansion filled with ghosts. His job is to check up on all the inhabitants of the home, as well as to handle any haunting when the living show up. However when the darkness of what lingers in the basement starts to take shape, Anon must choose between taking himself or the other ghosts to salvation.
This book is golden. I could not put it down, in fact I just spent two hours reading it when I should have been doing other things. I started it this morning when I was exercising and managed to put it down then, but when I sat down to have my lunch I made the mistake of picking it up again. After that I had no chance.
Firstly the book could do with some editing. There are occasional typos, missed words or duplicated words - all the signs that it needed one more going over, but, frankly, I didn't care. The protagonist is so engaging and the plot so enthralling that I just kept reading and reading and reading.
So few books can grab me and refuse to let go. I am a very picky reader and this one entertained me completely. It's sometimes light-hearted, sometimes heart-warming and other times almost perfunctory and it's all captivating.
Most of the characters are ghosts and they're not really good guys or bad guys they just are and they mostly like it that way. The book is a journey for Anon, or RA as he is known in the mansion and we see him develop over the story. We take the journey with him and it is a wonderful ride.
Nothing is over explained. Some questions are asked that aren't quite answered even, but, that's the whole point. Anon doesn't have the whole picture so neither do we. It's a story about people who happen to be ghosts and everything that means. Their boundaries and limitations, their sorrows and their joys and, in places, it is amazingly exciting too.
This is a great book; a little rough around the edges in places, but still, a great book. I so, so, so want to read the sequel (since it's book 1, I assume there is going to be another one). Since it only just came out I assume I'm going to have to be patient for the next one.
You've written a very nice review and I like your honest opinion regarding the book and the format too. But It does sound like a good ghostly story to read.
ReplyDeleteIt's not perfectly presented, but it really is worth over looking that. Loved it and had to tell the world :)
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