Impending Death, Imperfection, and Deadly Secrets

The Ghostwriter by Alessandra/A.R. Torre

Pages: 321 Genre: mystery (officially), psychological fiction (according to me)

Rating: 4.5 Star

Kindle Notes and Highlights

Helena Ross is an incredibly successful romance author and it seems like she has it all, but her real life is different than anyone would know. When she finds out that she is dying, she sets out to write one last novel with one less story: her own. With the help of her agent and her rival writer, Helena will be forced to confront her death and her best-kept secrets. She will finally tell the truth and come face-to-face with her own worst moments.

I was stunned by how much I enjoyed this book. I shouldn't have been, because I was gripped from the start. I really don't think that this book was a mystery, though, like it's marketing. Sure, we're overall uncovering a mystery, but this definitely falls more into literary or psychological fiction than being a true mystery or thriller. I like to go into books pretty blind, so I didn't even notice, but I was really shocked to see how its officially categorized. If you're looking for a really good and classic mystery, I don't think you're going to love this book. But for what it truly was, I loved it.

Helena was such a great main character. She's not a particularly good person, but she doesn't pretend to be either. In a lot of ways it's almost as if she is resistant to the idea of character development, which leads to a very interesting dynamic between us, her, and the other characters. And it made her growth feel more real, because she didn't end up being perfect, just more humanized.

One of the most interesting things about this book was how limited it was. There were really only four characters in the current timeline, plus maybe three through Helena's past. This really emphasized the isolation Helena was experiencing, and it made her interactions with people more meaningful. You immediately knew that if she was having an interaction with someone or pointing something out, it was important. This made the growth almost tangible.

That being said, I really did love Helena's two main companions. They balanced her out very well without making the whole thing feel gimmicky.

I also love stories like this that almost spoil themselves. Maybe it's the lover of tragedy in me, but there is something so poetic and satisfying about a story being so upfront and unapologetic while also delivering on a heartbreaking story.

This book was really good, and I'm sad that it's probably preemptively judged by many people for its genre. I found so much meaning and intention in this story, and I think many others could too.