Ghost Eaters
By Clay McLeod Chapman
Ghosts?
Drug related hauntings?
When I first heard about this book, I ran to put it on my TBR! I had this on my list when it was still in pre-order. The title alone, ‘Ghost Eaters’, was captivating and the cover art was absolutely stunningly haunting! I was quite eager to get my hands on this one.
When I dove into Ghost Eaters, I couldn’t have expected the impact it would have on me emotionally. Erin, our protagonist, has this very unhealthy attachment to Silas. Their friendship has been complicated, but one thing that has always remained the same is that Erin would pick up Silas when he fell. When Silas dies, there is a lot of unprocessed emotion and Erin’s grief is simply too much. When their friend, Tobias, offers her a way to see Silas again all of those feelings consume her and she begins to fall deep into the dark of the rabbit hole.
Here’s the deal, horror (in my opinion) works best when it makes us feel things. Not just fear and not just scared. Really digging into who we are as people and connecting with us in a way that lingers long after the last page has been turned. Ghost Eaters left me really in my feelings.
Growing up, I had an addict as a mother. So naturally, when I read things, or watch things, that are dealing with addiction; I always remember them more vividly. The one thing I remember the most (before I dive into my other thoughts on the story), is there is a scene in a house about two-thirds of the way through that I had to take a break from. I want to avoid spoilers, but it has to do with the set up being almost like a drug den. This scene was so descriptive, that it brought me back to places I saw when my biological mother had custody. I had to stop. I needed to take a break. The way those scenes made me feel, is unlike anything I’ve ever felt reading a horror story.
This covers addiction from the beginning stages of trying something and follows through with the rock bottom some addicts don’t make it out of. I think the characters in this are real. Erin as a protagonist is a believable character that I quickly began to greatly care for. Much like loving an addict in real life, I forgave her mishaps and I wanted her to do better. I promised her from the other side of the pages that I’d be there for her. This journey was a gut punch. Her family was obnoxious and her friends were no friends at all.
From the concept to the dialogue, this was quite a unique experience for me as a reader. There were parts in this that made me want to gag and parts that made me want to cry. Oddly therapeutic as things with this content tend to be for me; I was strangely at peace by the end.
If you’re looking for grief horror done through the scope of ghosts and addiction this is the perfect book for you. I had a great time reading it and it easily became one of my favorite things I’ve read all year. So I guess the only thing left to say is … wanna get haunted?
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