Gareth Is Haunted's Reviews > Ghostwritten

Ghostwritten is a superlative collection of four suspenseful novellas all set with a shared world and with a recurring theme, BOOKS!
'There is a history here—the history of us—that is so profound it feels like the air is different, that the colors are brighter, that the smells in this place have the power to transport you to a wholly different dimension.'

Previous to reading this I had only experienced Ronald Malfi's work through listening to audiobooks. Reading his work in print form was a far more immersive and enjoyable experience.
I think my enjoyment of these stories was for a large part due to them all connecting with me on some emotional or spiritual level. There was something in each story which I cannot define, yet felt strangely familiar and possibly comforting to me and with this still managed to retain an unsettling or malevolent presence.
This book transported me to other dark and mysterious worlds, although some turn out not too dissimilar to the one we live in. These stories explore the dark recesses of the human mind and made me imagine many strange, horrific or magical scenarios.
Malfi's writing was exceptional and has now cemented him as one of my favourite authors of the moment.
'Welcome to the Story! Your journey begins NOW!'

Below are my views and rating of each of the four novellas. I hope you enjoy reading these and that they inspire you enough to pick this outstanding collection of stories up.

THE SKIN OF HER TEETH ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A hugely captivating supernatural and psychological tale of possession and obsession.
'Like the rattling chains of Marley’s ghost, McElroy’s voice once again rose up in her head: It wasn’t just physical, he had told her. It was getting in my head, too. Twisting my thoughts. Waging war on an internal scale, like some kind of parasite.'

A twisted story about a cursed novel and its attempts to preserve itself at all costs.
This was one of those stories I simply could not get enough of. I am usually a fast reader but something about this work made me take my time and savour every single one of its twisted and malevolent words.
I could not help but draw a few comparisons with The Shinning on a few occasions. I guess this is mainly due to some of the themes which are involved in both of the stories. This is by no means a bad thing, in fact, quite the opposite.
The only negative I can throw at this novella is that at times I felt I had experienced elements of it before in other works, especially the one scene when the MC talks to a bookshop owner. That said, this didn't detract anything from my reading experience at all.
Overall I thought this was a delightfully creepy and hugely engrossing reading experience which ultimately left me wanting more. Malfi's writing is up there with the very best.

'Altering, Gloria thought. It was the word Finter had used, too: Whatever lives inside this book, it wants to remain. That is its sole purpose, do you hear? To remain. She doesn’t want to leave, and she certainly does not want to be altered. She does not want change.'
Ultimately my words can't quite describe how much I loved this story.

THE DARK BROTHERS�� LAST RIDE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A road trip story like no other!
'The shadows were swallowing him up. To Danny, that darkness seemed impossibly dense. He was suddenly overcome with the irrational fear that if his brother took one more step, he’d fall into that darkness and be lost forever.'

This is a curious story about two brothers who are on a mission to deliver a mysterious package.
I have to be truthful here, when starting this story I initially thought to myself that this was going to be the one dodgy story in this collection, but it turns out that as the story progressed my initial impressions were massively wide of the mark. This turned into one of the creepiest, most disturbing and psychologically messed up stories I have read in some time, if not ever.
This story got under my skin and conjured up such otherworldly and vivid imagery in my mind. It isn't that common for a story to make me feel uncomfortable or uneasy, this did that on numerous occasions, but somehow I can't quite pinpoint why this was the case. I guess my feeling this way is a testament to the quality of Malfi's writing skills within this story.
I love a story which really delves deeply into the human mind and our paranoid perceptions of this world and this is most definitely a story which delivers that and so much more.

'"It is more akin to reaching up into the far reaches of space and grabbing yourself a piece of the universe. A piece that creates life? A piece that brings about chaos? A piece to turn back time? Is a dusty old stone really just a stone, or is it one tiny piece of a much greater whole?”'
Deep, dark, menacing and completely out of this world. An amazing work of tense and paranoid fiction.

THIS BOOK BELONGS TO OLO ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wow! I can honestly say that I have never read a story quite like this before.
'A spiral staircase stood in the center of the foyer, an intricate monstrosity that climbed to the shadowed, cobwebbed corners of the house’s second story.'

An incredibly surreal and claustrophobic story about a reclusive boy and his mysterious pop-up book.
I have so much to say about this story so I will attempt to keep this short.
This Book Belongs To Olo is an exceptional piece of horror/fantasy writing on almost every level. It was one of those stories which would constantly twist and turn, one minute I had empathy for the MC and the next I would be thinking he is a terrible child. It is very rare for me to have such mixed feelings for a character but it says a lot about the storytelling that I have become so emotionally involved in the story.
As with the other stories in this book, the writing is quite simply breathtaking at times. Within this story, Malfi's writing borders on feeling almost Lovecraftian on occasions with his superbly atmospheric scene setting and then creating some immensely vivid and maddening thoughts for the characters, all leaving me completely immersed in this story's otherworldly aura.
I know, I am just rambling and will no doubt rewrite this soon enough. I enjoyed this story so much that I think it has scrambled my mind. . . or was it from spending too much time in Helix House?

'She kept claiming she’d crawled through a painting and into another dimension. Certainly sounded ridiculous when you said it out loud, but Peyton had no reason to disbelieve her.'
I am this novella's number-one fanboy right now!

THE STORY ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A great thriller/horror based on the premise of a pick-your-own adventure.
'It makes me sad to take all this in, because it strikes me as clear evidence of a declining humanity, a weakening of spirit, a person on the brink. This apartment is like a blazing neon sign warning someone—anyone—that its occupant is headed for disaster.'

This was my least favourite of the four stories in this book, mainly due to the first-person narrative style in this novella. I felt it lacked the literary flourishes which the other three novellas had in absolute spades. This is by no means me saying this was a bad story, quite to the contrary it was an exceptionally well-written and entertaining piece. I love how the writer Initially gently meanders, giving some background, lightly developing the characters and then all of a sudden POW instant madness. mindfuck!!!
This story made me think of movies such as The Ring and various found footage shows that I have seen over the years and had the same elements that I have loved within every one of these four stories, a strong sense of brooding presence lurking in the background and also a feeling of overwhelming madness and claustrophobia.
As I am sure I have said, I love stories that delve into the maddening mind, the chaotic, dark and oppressive all-encompassing thoughts. This novella did that with ease.

'The writing explodes from there, boils out, roils out, buckshot all over the walls, along the painted I-beams in the ceiling, scrawled like a mad genius’s mathematical equations on the hardwood floor, A Beautiful Mind gone haywire. A monsoon of words. An obliterating sandstorm of words.'
An absolute headfuck of a novella.

'I can climb through, his mind yammered, I can crawl all the way out into the yard and just run and not look back because something is wrong here something is messed up something is akin to the state of human happiness which is a wall impenetrable which is the disposition of mind and not of circumstance which is the little red invitation with a black smiley face which is—

In case I have not managed to express my feelings clearly in all of my writing, I will say this: I fucking LOVED every second of reading this book!