Title: Ghoster
Author: Jason Arnopp
Edition: Paperback
Page Count: 496 pages
Rating: 4.5 / 5 ✨✨✨✨
Short Summary:
Kate Collins has been ghosted.
She was supposed to be moving in with her new boyfriend Scott, but all she finds after relocating to Brighton is an empty apartment. Scott has vanished. His possessions have all disappeared.
Except for his mobile phone.
Kate knows she shouldn’t hack into Scott’s phone. She shouldn’t look at his Tinder, his calls, his social media. But she can’t quite help herself.
That’s when the trouble starts. Strange, whispering phone calls from numbers she doesn’t recognize. Scratch marks on the walls that she can’t explain. And the growing feeling that she’s being watched.
Kate refuses to leave the apartment – she’s not going anywhere until she’s discovered what happened to Scott. But the deeper she dives into Scott’s digital history the more Kate realizes just how little she really knows about the man she loves.
I love the idea of involving technology & social media in horror, but only when it’s done well. Sometimes it can feel too heavy handed with meme references and cat jokes, but when done right, it can make you think of social media in a more sinister sort of way. I’m happy to say that with GHOSTER, Jason Arnopp did it right! I’ve read a few books or stories where addiction to phones / social media / being online has been tackled, but this is one of my favorite instances of it – Arnopp’s writing is almost as addictive as the trends and technology he’s writing about!
This was a fun story, and ‘fun’ isn’t something I always use to describe horror books. I love when you can have a bit of comedy or a snarky toned character alongside the creepy things going on, and Kate is just that – some of her internal monologues had me giggling while I read. It seemed like she was being thrown curve balls every other chapter, and each new revelation kept me turning the page to figure out what the hell was going on.
Despite that, it’s not all lighthearted fun – there is an overall mystery that’s revealed eventually, and I was completely absorbed in finding out what actually happened to Scott. Did he really just ghost Kate, or was there something else going on? From the horror side of things, without spoiling too much, we get introduced to some pretty creepy happenings in the apartment. Nothing too over the top though, so if you’re not a fan of extremely terrifying stuff, this one is a spooky but safe read for you!
While I did enjoy this one a lot overall, there were a couple of small things that kept it from being a full 5 star read. I felt like the page count was a bit high considering the amount happening in the first 150 or so pages – this one took me a bit longer to read than I had anticipated because of the pacing early on, although it did pay off big time toward the end for me! Another small point was that I didn’t actually really like our main character, Kate, very much. I quite liked her best friend, but Kate was a little annoying at times, despite her funny internal voice. That said though, I only removed .5 stars for these things – they didn’t take much out of my reading experience at all, but I do like being fully honest with my reviews, whether it’s good or bad!
I also own THE LAST DAYS OF JACK SPARKS by the author, and am eager to read it in 2020. He’s definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye on future releases from, and if you like spooky technology fiction or social media in your horror books, check this one out!
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I’ve been sitting at 20% on this for MONTHS, meaning to finish it, and your review has finally inspired me to actually want to pick it back up, so thank you for that! 😂