Ghoster by Jason Arnopp
I would like to thank Orbit Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Orbit Books
Published – Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook
Prepare to never look at your phone the same way again…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 recognise. 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 realises just how little she really knows about the man she loves.
To paraphrase the singer Frank Turner ‘because we’re all so very twenty first century, you’re probably reading me on some kind of portable device, maybe you’re sitting on the back of the bus, or it’s running up your sleeve and you’re across from your boss?’ We are now increasingly more connected than we have ever been to an online universe via a tiny screen that calls to us all the time. At any time of the day we can see what millions of people are talking about and the advent of the smartphone has changed our interactions on everything from shopping, blogging to even relationships. As it’s not something the human mind necessarily evolved for our psychological relationship with technology is leading to some startling thoughts about our attention spans; our need for feedback and our sense of self. In Jason Arnopp’s gripping supernatural thriller Ghoster the question is asked do we really know anyone on the other end of the connection…even ourselves?
Kate Collins is now living the best life. A confident witty geeky movie fan and paramedic she is about to settle down. Her belongings are packed; job transferred to Brighton and a lovely apartment with the man of her dreams Scott await. But over the last few days he is now answering any phone calls or texts and now it’s moving day. Kate is anxious that something nasty has happened to Scott but instead arrives to find the apartment is empty; nothing bar a smiley face on the window and his old phone. Kate out of a mixture of concern and anger at potentially being duped decides it’s time to try and unlock the phone and in the process work out where Scott is. But then Kate finds in his apps that Scott has a history of talking to other women while they dated; appears to have googled her life including her favourite films which they amazingly had in common and he’s ran up immense debts; at the same time she is getting weird phone calls telling her to go away and then at night she gets a horrible sense she is being watched in an empty room.
The mystery of Scott’s disappearance is the driving force for the novel and it’s compelling as it feeds into that fear of any new relationship – is this person we’re falling for who they appear to be? A lot of the book alternates Kate’s discoveries about the real Scott with the early days of the relationship. Scott is the guy who loves the same movies as her; can be funny and intimate and we see just potential clues that all was not right even then but as we all tend to do these are things she prefers to skirt over as he feels so genuine. But as she starts to unpeel his hidden online identity, she finds a man that seemed to have had ulterior motives and hidden diaries. Kate wants to solve this mystery partly because she really does love Scott and is concerned that something untoward happened to him and partly to explode her anger at him for what could appear to be a vicious bit of catfishing. Kate’s pain and anguish comes across in the very personal first-person narration the book uses and ultimately, she needs to know. On its own it’s a great premise for a thriller as each discovery leads to Kate exploring another hidden part of Scott’s life but the added benefit here is that we soon realise this isn’t just a crime thriller where something much more supernatural is at work.
In some ways this tale is a riff on the found footage genre. On Scott’s phone Kate finds disturbing videos and pictures that don’t seem fully human. This then seems to trigger various forces and Kate starts to get eerie phone calls and the Brighton apartment starts to feel like someone is watching her at night. Kate’s investigation of Scott starts to reveal that on his phone are images of various people who lived in the same town and have recently all disappeared. Arnopp starts building the atmosphere that any genre fan knows is going to lead to something much more climatic and the book has a delicious way of giving you a nice normal stream of consciousness description of life from Kate then BAM something quite shocking just arrives in the narrative which jolts the reader. Like Kate we’re suddenly pulled from what seems like a domestic/noir thriller into a world of the paranormal and a bit like Kate its very hard once we get that first taste of the weird to pull away – we have to find out what’s going on.
A huge part of the success of the novel is that Arnopp has really captured the online world in both its pleasures and its dangers. With Scott it’s that stark reminder that not all online personas are genuine and that fear of if the person we suddenly find ourselves sharing our innermost thoughts with on an online dating site going to turn out to be honest or are they just in this for their own personal gain? Kate is a fantastic lead character we really feel for her situation (and who has not ever felt that relationship where the person we want to be with turns out not to be who we thought they were) but at the same time she’s not perfect. We find out she is just out of a digital detox programme for being addicted to social media. For various reasons Kate had got herself into the cycle of needing online validation as well as keeping up on the acts of an ex that she really had taken her eye off what was going on in life – and for a paramedic that can be dangerous. Kate is now ‘clean’ but now having access to a smart phone again and being able to go into online profiles; explore messages all those opportunities are triggering that need to pick that phone up…just one more time. If you’ve ever felt that urge even on a date to read the latest notification/text at the expense of the person opposite, then you’ll recognise the kick Kate gets from uncovering Scott’s life. One worrying aspect of the novel is if Kate who seems so rational and level-headed is really trying to solve this mystery for Scott’s safety; a form of relationship closure or just possibly for that great dopamine hit of the next app message or even possibly some prestige? These days in our relationship with social media who exactly is in charge of our actions?
Ghoster is a fascinating and often troubling read not just for its creation of a supernatural mystery that starts to threaten it’s lead character but also for having some pointed commentary about how we can seem to favour our online lives over our real ones. The chance to throw ourselves into something that will get us attention, praise, validation or sometimes just companionship can expose us to all sorts of dangers and not everyone or everything out there has our best interests at heart. This is a horror tale that really speaks to the 21st century world we live in. Strongly recommended if you enjoy thrillers and horror but if you are reading this on an online format like I did you may really find yourself both looking out at the corner of your eyes a lot more and hope you’re not sharing the screen with a stranger.
