Ghostwritten - Four Unimpeachable Horror Novellas by Ronald Malfi
STAND AND TAKE NOTICE!
Here we have, by far, one of the best books I have read in 2022. I was lucky enough to get an ARC through Netgalley. I found myself losing time as I greedily ate up the pages of each story. As I finished each novella, I paused and thought ‘It can’t get any better than that one,’ but when I moved on to the next, it would match and surpass the previous one. What wizardry is this? Did Ronald Malfi sell his soul to the gods of ink and page? When I was midway through this collection, I felt compelled to personally reach out to Ronald Malfi on social media and explain how reading this book, reading his writing, is like when you get some really good food or drink and you have a bite or a sip of it and smack the table with the ecstasy it brings. Then you keep smacking that table after every taste despite protests from your friends to STOP being so disruptive, but you just CANNOT. IT NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT TO EVERYONE’S ATTENTION. STAND AND TAKE NOTICE!
No matter how many times I try to assess which story was my favourite, I cannot choose just one. I love them all so much. The stories encircle the topic of writing, creating, and books, bringing an avid reader such as myself into a kind of meta realm where I get to read about the book that I’m reading, which is a trope I am in love with. They all have terrifying, magical surrealism to them that is so unbelievably satiating.
When the first story (The Skin of Her Teeth) starts at a grade of 100%, the rest can only continue on that trajectory that falls beyond a scale above which people don’t usually bother counting. The second novella (The Dark Brother's’ Last Ride) reminded me of Stephen King’s Desperation in a strange way and was so freaking cool and creepy. The third one (This Book Belongs to Olo) blew my mind with its originality, character development, and disturbing concepts. The fourth (The Story) called to the journalist in me and made me feel like I was in danger, that curiosity is not a safe tactic, and that sometimes you don’t really want to find out how things end. And to top it all off, each story was connected in some way to the rest in the book. How cool is that?
Indomitable stories aside, any Ronald Malfi fan will also discover that there are some subtle and not-so-subtle connections to other books he has written outside of this collection. This guy is creating his own universe, which is another writing method that will always win me over and guarantee my undying devotion when done well (see Stephen King and Terry Pratchett). I know there is a lot of work involved in linking characters and ideas across many books and that just adds to the checklist of why Ronald Malfi is an emperor of the written word.
Drop what you’re doing, hesitate not, and pick this book up when it comes out October 11th, 2022. Trust me.
