Ghosted: A Love Story

Review Unnerving, absorbing . . . Ashworth's setting is a small unnamed northwestern university city . . . a clever, gripping, refreshingly urban setting for a novel that plays with tropes from not just ghost stories but also murder mysteries . . . The mentally restless Laurie is a miraculous creation, somehow managing to be both a not entirely reliable narrator and yet solidly sympathetic. Piercingly human and darkly funny, Ghosted is a tender, beautifully controlled account of expectations knocked off course. -- Patricia Nicol ― Sunday TimesFrom her debut novel, A Kind of Intimacy, Ashworth's work has explored physical discomfort, violence and sexual misadventure. She writes explicitly of physicality and its often petrifying opposite - disembodiment. There are moments in Ghosted that are at once terrifying and blackly humorous . . . an impressive reminder of the uneasy silence reverberating on the other side of grief. -- Catherine Taylor ― GuardianSince her 2009 debut A Kind of Intimacy, Jenn Ashworth has been quietly collecting honours for her distinctive, empathetic and sharply observed novels, of which Ghosted is another . . . She writes powerfully and movingly about lives shaped by need, love and loss, as well as the solipsism of ferocious grief. -- Stephanie Cross ― Daily MailGhosts, buried trauma and lingering absences suffuse this darkly funny and compelling novel. -- Francesca Carington ― TatlerA revelatory portrait of a marriage. Although Laurie is acerbic and funny, this is an immeasurably sad read, aching with the unacknowledged grief of a complicated couple who have lost more than they can say. -- Eithne Farry ― Daily MirrorA brilliant 21st-century take on the Gothic: a woman, whose husband just vanishes, is left to the frantic silence of abandonment and virtual reality's eerie twilight. A seriously gifted writer surely due a big prize. -- Conor O'Callaghan ― Irish TimesRaw, darkly comic and moving ― BestStunning . . . Ghosted is a séance disguised as a novel. -- Andrew Gallix ― The London MagazineAshworth's writing is often referred to as "unnerving" and I wonder if that's because of her immense talent for honing in on our deepest fears. -- Emma Yates-Badley ― Northern SoulA vivid, blackly funny and heartbreaking portrait of a marriage and the tiny and large hurts within it, how they wear at us and haunt us despite everything, but I found it beautifully hopeful too. -- Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure (April 2021)A marvellous novel; thrumming with the absences and presences that can haunt a life, and shot through with flashes of great sadness and joy. If you don't know Jenn Ashworth's work already - which you should - this is a great place to start. -- Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 (April 2021)Fresh, darkly funny and exceptionally moving . . . Ashworth folds grief and anger and love into every line. -- Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground (April 2021)Ghosted is deeply unsettling - Laurie is such a believable complex person, I couldn't look away from her life. It's also just so utterly compelling and funny. The writing is impeccable and the dark heart of the novel is uncomfortably human and relatable. -- Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock (April 2021)Dark, funny, thrilling and deeply human, Ghosted is a book that will haunt you forever, and you'll be glad. Jenn Ashworth is a master of modern storytelling. -- Emma Jane Unsworth, author of Adults (April 2021)Ghosted perfectly captures the claustrophobia of living in your own mind. Ashworth's writing is both acerbic and insightful. She has created a protagonist who is as flawed and as interesting as most memorable people are. -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Starling Days (April 2021)There are dark and alluring undercurrents to everything that Jenn Ashworth produces, and she has a brilliantly uncanny ability to unnerve at every turn. To me, her psychologically driven work ranks alongside such singular spiritual ancestors as Muriel Spar