Ghost Eaters - Favourite of the Year!
Wow! I have read a lot of great books this year but I was blown away by Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman and it will be difficult to unseat this book as my favorite of the year.
It’s hard to tell what Chapman does best, because he does everything so incredibly well in this book. The characters are real, vivid, and deep because there are times when you root for all of them and times when you loathe them and ask yourself what the hell they are doing. Flawed characters like Erin, Silas, and their small group of friends are the characters that stand out the most when reading. I don’t need to like a character to enjoy reading their story. While Erin, the main character in Ghost Eaters, is a sympathetic character, she makes decisions that make her unlikable. Yet you still find yourself rooting for her as you read this book. Its impossible to put this book down, it’s easy to get into and once it starts you don’t want to stop.
Ghost Eaters deals with some heavy issues including drug abuse. Chapman does a great job of showing how drug use can easily slip into the realm of abuse without the user realizing until it’s too late.
Some books center around a specific setting while others use many different settings and it is the characters that are the most important. While Ghost Eaters is mainly character driven, there is one setting—an unfinished house in a new neighborhood—that stands out above all the others. Chapman was able to paint a picture of this place with his words. And while the other places in the book were well described, this particular house came alive on the page. And for anyone who has been in houses during their construction, the setting is very familiar and very creepy.
I can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s a great story and Chapman will drag you through until the last page whether you want to go or not. Highly recommend this one. Strong 5/5. It hits shelves September 20th.
