Book Review: Paper Ghosts by Sarah Addison Allen

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book! 
 
This novel takes place in a small town in North Caroline called Hen Town where everyone seems to know everyone. A mysterious woman owns most of the town. Wills Wester of the Wester family and the huge home is with whom the novel begins. Her grandmother has restrictions that forbade her to leave the family home. By staying put she inherits all of the family’s money and in a sense, their influence over the town. 

There are secrets within the house that no one seems to know exactly what they are so the home and the family is shrouded in mystery.  As a reader, even with an inside view, I felt the story was the same way for me, a mystery. I spent far too much time trying to make sense of what I was reading. I found myself asking what the heck is the real story behind the story?

It is well written and intriguing.  Clues kind of come along the way of the novel. There are deaths, disappearances, ghost sightings and plenty of innuendos that give cause for questions and speculations. There is betrayal by friends and

Sarah Addison Allen

cover ups so the offering by the author encases quite the drama.  The characterization was somewhat sketchy to me but I think that was by design. The story does  pull you in through the storyline even more so than the characters. What does emerge would be a spoiler if I stated it. It is revealed over the course of the story, piece by piece and then most of it comes together in the conclusion.  

All in all, it is a good read.  I think others would rate this higher but I am not a fan of this genre, mystery shrouded in some supernatural.   I am glad I read it though because it is definitely quite different!