Ghostwritten

Starred review from August 29, 2022
The four horror novellas of this wonderfully meta collection from Malfi (Come with Me) all turn on a vibrantly imagined theme that fans of macabre fiction will easily relate to: books as agents of horror. The centerpiece of “The Skin of Her Teeth” is a novel whose story adamantly refuses to let its telling be altered for extra-literary adaptations—with inevitably fatal results. In “The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride,” a pair of penny-ante hoods couriering a forbidden book to a buyer discover that it’s the key to horrifyingly altered realities. The collection’s most ambitious story, “This Book Belongs to Olo,” introduces a pop-up book whose creator uses the shifting facades of its interiors to trap victims in the architecture of his house. Though each story stands alone, the author subtly links the quartet through shared characters and small references so that the final tale, “The Story”—about a death-inducing e-book—reads like a well-orchestrated crescendo to all that came before. Malfi makes reading about the perils of reading a terrifying delight.

January 1, 2023

Malfi's (Black Mouth) latest horror collection demonstrates how dangerous books can be. The collection features four novellas, each focusing on books that are hazardous to one's health and sanity: a paperback hungry for writers' blood; an ancient text that leads two brothers on a harrowing road trip; a special pop-up-book owned by a lonely child; and a choose-your-own-adventure ebook that may make listeners question their own reality. This collection allows Malfi to get meta as he shows how stories can become much more than just words on paper. The variety of stories will satisfy readers' eclectic tastes, from the urban fantasy-infused "The Dark Brothers' Last Ride" to the Twilight Zone-inspired "This Book Belongs to Olo," which, with its dark fantasy elements and sympathetic depiction of childhood loneliness, may be the strongest tale in the collection. Narrator Joe Hempel makes the most of this opportunity to flex his vocal cords, effectively creating voices that range from a precocious child to a grizzled gangster. VERDICT This delightfully horrific book is also a flex of Malfi's writing talent, showcasing the marvelous assortment of horror subgenres and character archetypes in his writing toolbox. Share with fans of Paul Tremblay, Stephen King and Joe Hill.--James Gardner

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