I’ve just discovered this new word, Ghoster, a few months ago and I’ll admit it adds a new perspective at the relationship world. Because if the failure in a relationship is not enough, now you have to be careful to not being ghosted! Can you imagine?
This is a mixture of psychological thriller and horror story in a real perspective that will make you wonder what has really happened!
Kate is totally in love with Scott, so blindly in love, that when Scott asks her to move in after a few months together she accepts it without doubt. And that’s when the things will start turning south… because 24 hours before the move in, Scott stops answering her texts and calls. But Kate decide to continue with the moving and when she arrives at what it would had been her new life, all the Scott possessions had disappeared and it only remains his mobile… Oh yes, that’s when it gets scary, with some creepy phone calls and weird marks at the door; and the feeling that someone is watching her, making her start doubting of her own sanity! Because she has seen a lot of deaths (she works in a hospital) but she has never believed in ghosts till now. Kate will be so scared that her best friend will try to help her, showing us the power and trust of friendship.
The story is told in present, but we will read some flashbacks of how the relation between Kate and Scott begins, making it more easily to engage and understand their relation. Because the story of Kate and her addiction to them it will be talked in the book and possibly it will make you re-think how attracted you are too to technology.
This had been a very different read, mixing genres and original plot, it’s perfect if you are looking for a non-sleepy night!
Ready for Ghoster?

Holy Ghoster, Batman! What have I just read? Ghoster is not at all what I expected it to be but I absolutely loved it. Jason Arnopp has written such a highly original creepfest that it melted my brain and blew my mind. Prepare to be gobsmacked when you pick up a copy of Ghoster; also clear your schedule as you'll not be able to put it down.

Oh Kate Collins, where do I start? She needs a good talking to after deciding to move in with a guy she met only 3 months ago, not only that, it involves her relocating from Leeds to Brighton, and not only that again, she met him on a digital detox retreat after Super Liking him on Tinder. Coincidence? I don't think so, Kate! This was a car crash waiting to happen and I wasn't wrong, just not in the way I thought.

When Kate turns up in Brighton, with all her worldly belongings, Scott's flat is empty and there's no sign of him. As a paramedic, she's used to gaining entrance to homes in an emergency and suddenly finding herself homeless in a strange town certainly counts as an emergency. When she gets into Scott's flat the only thing left to show he was ever there is his mobile phone and a creepy face drawn on the glass of the balcony door. This throws Kate into even more turmoil as she has gone cold turkey on social media and smart phones since her obsession with looking at her phone caused an accident at work. Just picking up Scott's phone is like holding a cigarette to your lips after you've given up smoking. It's something Kate must do if she wants to find answers to why Scott disappeared but she must control her addiction before she loses herself again.

As scary as the story is in Ghoster, it has a more frightening underlying message: mobile phones can kill. It's good to be reminded of this as we've all heard the horror stories of fatal car accidents due to somebody texting or checking their phone, but this was a more sobering smack in the face of accidents that can be caused by the actions of a mobile phone user anytime, anywhere, anyplace. You can't go anywhere now without seeing people walking around with their heads down looking at their phones and it doesn't stop there as chances are that conversation at home is lost to the digital device to which their eyes are glued. Ghoster definitely gave me food for thought regarding my own mobile phone usage and I think switching my phone off, although difficult to do, would be a great way to have some distraction free time to do more reading.

Ghoster is very original, current and creepy as hell; with the dramatic disappearance being a massively intriguing hook, I simply couldn't put it down. You need to have an open mind to enjoy this multi-dimensional out of this world thriller; even if you expect the unexpected, it will still blow your mind. Ghoster is an outstanding book; I absolutely loved it!

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Everyone is talking about Ghoster and when I heard about it I was intrigued to read more It’s narrated by the protagonist, Kate Collins and this gives the reader insight into how she is feeling, which brought me right into the action. She also lets us know what is going through her head as the action takes place and I enjoyed this aspect of the novel. As a character, I often found Kate quite frustrating, as she acts in ways I wouldn’t expect of someone who is otherwise intelligent. However I can forgive this as it keeps the story moving and gives us lots of tense moments!

The situation in which Kate finds herself is certainly very unsettling and Arnopp does an exceptional job of building the atmosphere. I was desperate to find out what had happened to Scott.

I don’t usually read books with a supernatural element, but Ghoster is written very well and the ghostly aspects of it add an extra layer which makes it incredibly intriguing.

Ghoster was an entertaining, fast read even though its over 400 pages. Kate is a paramedic who meets Scott on Tinder and after seeing him for 4 months she agrees to move in with him some 300 miles away. A few days before she moves, she is unable to reach him and when she arrives at the flat - she finds it empty and the only thing there is his smart phone. So Kate begins the process of getting into his phone and figuring out what is going on. I was extremely engaged with finding out Where was Scott and why did he seemingly dump Kate. Strange things also occur at the flat. I did like the first part of the book even though I found Kate to be quite an annoying character. The first part of the book was better than the ending. .

Arnopp cleverly creates a smart tale of social media and obsession and whilst being totally terrified during parts of this book, it really made me think about how much social media and our subsequent reliance upon it, has encroached on our lives.

I enjoyed the descriptive style of writing; so often thrillers are so fast paced and tense that I find the quality of the narrative is lacking, however here, we are presented with beautiful, chilling prose.  The eloquence of the writing really enhanced my enjoyment of the story.

I read this book in two days and at times had to remind myself to breathe; the surprise introduction of a supernatural element made my hairs stand on end and I felt suitably uncomfortable and on edge during this rollercoaster of a book.  With twists and turns galore, I defy anyone not to become addicted to this dark urban nightmare.

Arnopp is a new author (to me) and until I read Ghoster, I had heard very little about him and his work.  Well if this gem of a book is anything to go by, I’ll definitely be reading his first and eagerly anticipating his next!

Ghoster is a quick, slick and superbly sinister read; if you want to be furiously turning pages late into the night then this is the book for you.

So this year has really been the year that I have gone out of my comfort zone to read books that normally I would not have picked up. Ghoster is another one of those books and I will admit that at the beginning I wasn’t sure if this was the book for me. Going by the book blub alone you don’t necessarily get a true feel for what the book is about but I am glad that I kept reading however as although this is most definitely a ghost/horror story, it’s not one that goes over the top on the gore.
Kate Collins is a paramedic with a serious problem .. she is addicted to her smartphone. After one particular incident sees her colleague and best friend suffer an accident, she decides to go cold turkey and do a digital detox at a retreat. Here she meets Scott and that’s when all her problems really start. After agreeing to move in with him, she finds his flat empty when she gets there… no furniture, no personal belongings and absolutely no Scott. This is where the reader may think that the “Ghoster” of the title refers to Scott’s behaviour, and in fact that is exactly what Kate first thinks. As she delves into the past of the boyfriend she clearly didn’t know as well as she thought she did, her beliefs quickly change and once again she is drawn back into the world of social media.
As I have already said this is not an outright scare fest horror story, the relationship between Kate and her best friend Izzy bring some fun throughout the book, but you are also brought right back to the gruesome with the antics of Kate’s new work partner Tyler…. Lets just say for a paramedic he is not always as professional as you would hope he would be. There is also the reality that just as Kate is obsessed/possessed by her smartphone and social media, this is the sad truth of most people today. Arnopp has just taken this obsession one step further and turned it into something creepy. With the story flitting between when Kate and Scott met, and the time after he disappears, the author is able to control exactly what is revealed and when, giving the reader teasers of what might actually be going on. As for the ending…. Well that was certainly not something I was expecting but just added to the enjoyment of the book.
Ghoster may not be to everyone’s taste as it crosses between a story about relationships, social media and ghost stories, but for me it was its different take on the horror genre that made it appealing.

Kate Collins was excited to be moving in with her boyfriend. She is slightly uncertain when he doesn’t respond to her texts the day before she moves but imagine her surprise when she arrives & he isn’t there. Nothing. No furniture, no power, no Scott. Just an empty flat. Oh, apart from his mobile phone which she finds out on his balcony.

This is a book of two halves – the first half was great, the second not so much.

The book begins with Kate trying to find Scott. She tries to track down his online presence, his Tinder profile, his Twitter feed. She tries to recreate the past few months from his point of view using his history on his phone. All while coming to terms with the fact that he has disappeared & left her. This is really well written and I loved the attention to detail of the social media presence and Kate’s feelings about the whole situation. However, then the author decided to add a paranormal aspect to the story and it all got a bit strange and frankly unbelievable. Even within the boundaries of a supernatural book, this was odd. Kate started to act out of character and people did things that just didn’t fit in with the first half of the story. The ending was really most odd.

I really wish the author had continued with the book without the supernatural element. I am sure that they could have pulled the threads together and written a really good second half that fitted well with the first. It was such a shame as I was enjoying the book. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of ghost and certain horror and supernatural books but this just did not work for me.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

Ghoster is the first book that I have read by Jason Arnopp. I had no idea how unique, bonkers and intimidating it would be.

I had no idea what ghosting was when I started to read this novel. My first thought was how cruel this was, followed by thinking it was probably common among some of the nastier people among us. Especially on social media.

Social Media is something I use but not obsessively. It is something I am cynical about. Even more so after reading this novel. I now eye my phone dubiously, and I wonder, just a little, how many people are ‘possessed’ by their phones. Some of the apps I’m familiar with, most I would go out of way to avoid. Reading this book made me even more wary of the ones that I have and made me question how controlling technology is.

Kate was a character I liked a lot. Hard working, has made mistakes that she feels remorseful about and is determined to change her habits. She is hurt and bewildered about her boyfriend’s disappearance. The boyfriend she met through technology.

Reading about her career has made me appreciate our paramedics a lot more. When I read the acknowledgements and learned that at least one of her experiences was real was an eye opener. I just hope that Tyler isn’t based on anybody real.

This story is completely ingenious the concept of this totally reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror and I adore that show.
This is actually rather scary if you examine the deeper implications this story explores.
Genre-wise I would describe this as Horror with a touch sci-fi and paranormal included its a hard one really to categorise as it crosses the genre lines.
So after a whirlwind romance, Kate is moving to Brighton to live with Scott only issue is Scott seems to have gone AWOL and when Kate eventually arrives at her new home she finds no sign of her boyfriend and a completely empty apartment is Kate being ghosted or is there something more sinister going on here.
With her bridges burned back home and a new job, Kate has no choice but to stay and when she finds Scott's phone abandoned out on the balcony she is aware that it might hold some insight into her missing boyfriend.
as she digs into Scott's life she wonders how well she really knew him as all sorts of stuff is brought forth to the surface.
Also, Kates addiction to social media is at risk of being triggered by this whole nightmare scenario.
This also points a finger at the superficial world we all live in, hiding our true selves from those around us all playing a role for our wider circles.
So this was actually rather sinister and creepy especially the times that Kate is holed up in that empty flat at night with all sorts of weird stuff occurring and no electric.
The dark empty space with strange noises, eerie calls, gauge marks in the door that kept appearing and a strange blue light not to mention the weird stuff on Scott's phone Kate has no idea what to think.
She also feels a really ominous vibe like she is being observed.
So this was very well written and a real page-turner.
Its told in a then and now fashion as Kate lived the current terror and also remembers her time with Scott through a series of flashbacks.
Finally, that ending was truly unique and to think of how this depicted the final destination and how it described it was just perfect.
Really enjoyed this one a lot, it was fresh, unique and just so different, it really stood out from the crowd with its originality.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of Ghoster.

MASSIVE thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for the blogotur invite and Little Brown for my gifted review copy of ‘Ghoster’ by Jason Arnopp, due out on 24/10/19 in paperback format.

This book is a whip smart evocation of the social media phenomena known as ‘FOMO‘ -or fear of missing out- and ‘‘ghosting’

What is so very smart is that you have a main character, Kate,-who incidentally is such a finely written female character from a male writer, I just want to applaud how well Jason Arnopp writes in the female voice!-whose job , as a paramdeic, is involved with individuals at their most vulnerable and life threatening.

Yet in her private life, she is using a date app to find Mr Right(or Mr He-Will-Do-For-Tonight) and her use of the refresh button has had catastrophic consequences. At a retreat for addicts to social media where people are weaned off their smart phone addictions, a man who she saw on Tinder has surprisingly appeared and a tentative relationship, conducted first in person and then over ancient Nokias (ask your grandparents if you don’t know what a Nokia is, kids!)develops over the course of one summer.

Interspersed with details of their meeting, their dates and their moving in plans is the ‘now’ of Kate turning up in Brighton having heard absolutely NOTHING from Scott for the previous couple of days.

Convinced it is some type of prank, she decides, having thrown her notice in at work and with her landlord, to still drive down with her movers behind her-imagine the shock, then, when she finds his entire flat empty, except for a drawing on a window and Scott’s discarded phone.

The only person she has to talk to about this, best friend Izzy, is miles away. Kate has no choice but to a)start her new job and b)work out just what the hell has happened.

But having worked so hard at withdrawing herself from her addiction, can she trust herself not to look in Scott’s phone?

Does she have any choice when she lives in an ancient flat with no electricity, no furniture and no clue?

The cleverness of this novel is emphaised by it’s dual nature-life and death, knowledge and lack thereof, addiction and cure are all interplayed effortlessly.

In order for Kate to work out just what the hell is going on, she has to confront an online footprint of the person she thought that she knew, whilst maintaining a distance to protect her vulnerable mental state.

But if she had been online in the first place, would this situation have occurred?

And does validation come with a price tag that can cost you your sanity?

As Kate dives deeper, you feel that you as a reader are detecting along with her, searching for clues as to her boyfriend’s whereabouts, and as such, you want her to have a happy ending. But as weird things start happening and her sense of reality slips, there is a neat supernatural twist which throws an entirely new persepctive on the whole novel.

It takes a lot to grip me and make me read one book at a time-I admit to being a shameful and serial cheater with at least 2 books on the go-however, not only did this book completely thrill me, it made me look at my own social media usage, and question how much validity does a person need in their life? And in particular from those who are, essentially, strangers?

We all know that person who, in real life,resembles nothing like who they project online, and as they revel in this adoration for that fake self, does the real person inside become a ghost?

Do you actually ghost yourself whilst pretending to be something that you are not, becoming one step removed from real life as your energies are poured into searching for elusive terms like ‘top fan’,’influencer’ , ‘favourite’, most loved’, ‘Mr/Miss Right’?

How far before you disappear up your own online arse and vanish?

And again, I digress!

This book had me thinking so much about very many, many, MANY issues , it taps into uncomfortable truths and the consequences of lies and hidden agendas. On the surface it could be sold as many things , but to me, it read as a suspense filled narrative which we, the readers, are plunged head first into, again and again, like being ducked in a bucket of cold water, pulled back for air, and gasping, dunked again.

Breathless, exhilirating and weird as hell, I loved it, loved it, LOVED IT!

Let’s get this out of the way, and it might be a spoiler - Jason Arnopp writes horror fiction. I did not know that. Despite buying his previous novel, The Last Days of Jack Sparks, on a recommendation, I haven’t actually got round to reading it. And, when offered the opportunity to take part in the BlogTour for GHOSTER, I recognised the name and was intrigued by the social media angle. I was expecting a thriller about our reliance on technology but oh this is so much more.
Kate Collins is a fantastic character - witty, foul-mouthed, intelligent, a little insecure, and thoroughly relatable, likeable and entertaining. Arriving from Leeds to live with her boyfriend in Brighton, she finds his apartment abandoned, emptied of furniture, with a strange drawing on the doors to the balcony. And, on the balcony, she finds Scott’s mobile phone. As Kate tries to understand why Scott, despite being so keen on her, and on their moving in together, has seemingly done a runner, she relates the story of how they got to this point. Is it possible that Scott has been stringing her along since they met? Is he somehow watching her distress, taking pleasure in it? Despite swearing-off social media, and smartphones, following an incident some time ago, Kate decides to snoop on the contents of Scott’s phone, his messages, Facebook and Tinder accounts in an attempt to answer her questions.
The mystery of Scott’s absence, and Kate’s resourcefulness in investigating his ghosting of her, is so thoroughly absorbing that, by the time you realise that the hairs are standing up on the back of your neck, that things are getting really creepy, you are completely invested. And by the time things start to get really crazy there is no backing out, you go with it, you want to know where Kate, and Arnopp, are going…

I have read other genre-splicing novels which ultimately failed due the abrupt shift in tone. There is no flicking of a switch here, no ‘trick’ to the writing. Jason Arnopp creates realistic characters, not only in Kate but in the supporting cast - her incredible best friend, her unsettling new colleague - characters the reader cares about as they are gradually drawn into a plot that becomes increasingly stranger. I found the book entertaining and disturbing in equal measure. It deserves to be huge. Thanks to OrbitBooks and Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to take part in the BlogTour. And now to Jack Sparks…

Well, Ghoster by Jason Arnopp is quite the ride. I was merrily reading about Kate, a young paramedic from Leeds who is about to move in with her boyfriend Scott in Brighton and thought, ‘ahhh, isn’t this lovely!’. But, she gets there and he’s missing. In fact his whole flat has been emptied. He isn’t replying to texts or answering phone calls and I thought, ‘ooooh! A mystery, great!’. Except the mystery wasn’t quite what I thought it would be and I ended up devouring three-quarters of the book in one night because I was transfixed and just had to know how it ends.

Which I’m not going to reveal to you. Obviously. There’s no spoilers in this review – this is definitely a book that you have to read for yourself. What I will tell you is that this is a fun book to read, it zings along at a great pace and features one of the most engaging, endearing and ballsy females I have ever had the pleasure to read. Kate Collins is fun, feisty and brave but also does really, really stupid things.

She has stopped using a smart phone and come off all social media after finding herself addicted and spiralling out of control. We don’t immediately know why she became addicted to her phone or what event happened to make her give it up but all gradually becomes clear. This book isn’t just a bonkers mystery it is also a clever examination of the sort of world we live in now. Crafting cleverly worded tweets to get as many likes as possible and assuming a friend is OK because they have posted some funny cat gifs on Facebook are both the norm. In a world that is becoming gradually more inward, with most people looking down at their phones, Jason Arnopp forces us to look up and question what is real and what is a perception of reality?

Before leaving the world of Twitter and Facebook Kate spies a ridiculously hot guy on Tinder and super likes him, but he doesn’t reciprocate. This man is Scott, and when she goes on a digital detox retreat a few months later he is there, they form a connection and fall in love. Whirlwind romances are great aren’t they? Especially when they are long distance. Weekends spent walking through Brighton, weekends spent in bed, long phone calls, sexting on her bog basic Nokia, gazing into one another’s eyes; wonderful eh? But what about the red flags? It’s easy to ignore those, to pretend that that time she found Scott doing something odd in the middle of the night wasn’t quite as bad as she remembered it being. When she finds his mobile and hacks into it she realises that maybe she should’ve paid a bit more attention to those red flags. And that’s when things get weird.

Suspenseful and fun Ghoster is a really great read. It was refreshing to read a book which featured such a great female friendship in the form of Kate and her best friend Izzy. Their relationship felt authentic and although there are laughs and gentle ribbing there is also a lot of love there – this sort of thing can be tough to write but Jason Arnopp pulls it off.

I really enjoyed this book and recommend to anybody who wants to lose themselves in a page turner. A mystery, a ballsy protagonist and some odd goings on – what else do you need?

Great book. Really enjoyed this and couldn't put it down, loved the concept. Thank you Netgalley for my advanced copy.

I’m not really sure where to start with this review. Ghoster is a book unlike any that I have read before, in many ways it seemed like a pretty standard book about a girl who fell in love with a boy who was a jerk and who left her high and dry with nowhere to live. Social media and phone use are a prominent part of the story and I felt confident that this book would be a story about how phones are bad and that the moral of the story is that you should use your phone and social media less.

Of course, I was totally wrong, although I do think that message is there, but this book is about so much more. The spooky element was not something I had expected, and if I’m honest it was a part of the story that I was really not sure about.

What was great about the book were some of the characters. I really like Kate Collins, the main character who was frankly rather naive and totally obsessive (hence her trying to cut down on her social media use) but also kinda brilliant. Even better than Kate was her best friend, Izzy, someone who was living with the consequences of Kate’s phone obsession yet remained a brilliant friend. I really enjoyed reading the parts with Izzy in it.

This book, despite being very confusing at times, is also very clever, thought provoking and downright crazy. The ending is one that I will be thinking about and trying to work out what on earth had happened for some time to come.

This was more like a chick lit kind of a book initially where Kate Collins had been ghosted by Scott after she left her home and job and traveled many miles to live with him. All she found was a mobile phone and an empty house. And she needed answers. FAST. But then strange messages appeared on Scott's phone and scratches on the door. What was happening?

My first book by Jason Arnopp, I too wanted to know the reason why Kate had been ghosted on such a dreadful manner. Having undergone the same myself, I wanted vengeance via the story. Kate was difficult to connect to, her obsession with social media went a bit too far.

I liked how the author insidiously introduced the eerie incidents happening with Kate. The mystery and ghostly sightings caused my thriller-y senses to tingle. Written in Kate's POV, this was one winding road which dealt with social media obsession along with mystery of the missing boyfriend written like a chick-lit.

BUT WAIT!! The ending was so unexpected and freaking scary that I don't think I breathed even once while reading the last couple of chapters. I loved it. Wow!!

I received a free eARC of Ghoster but that has in no way influenced my review.

Jason Arnopp is a name that has been known to me for a while. If you’re a fan of horror fiction then you can’t have missed his previous novel, The Last Days of Jack Sparks. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading it myself yet but it’s waiting patiently on my bookshelf and as soon as I have a little downtime then it’s my next book of choice. So Ghoster was my first foray into the dark mind of Mr Arnopp and what a wonderful spooky experience it was. Reading Ghoster, if anything, has made me even more keen to get stuck in.

Paramedic Kate Collins is a modern woman who is a bit ballsy, very likeable but also very lonely. She also has an addiction many of us can relate to; her phone. A world where a hundred friends are ‘there for you’ but you don’t actually know a single one of them in person. A world where accumulating ‘likes’ is everything. So much so, that you view life through the lens of your phone’s camera – rather than actually live it. Following an incident at work Kate decides to dump her smartphone and buy a basic Nokia. She also takes herself off to Wales to a digital detox retreat. It’s here she spots a familiar face. Scott is a guy she super-liked on Tinder earlier in the year. He blanked her but now he’s here! They begin chatting, find out they have lots in common and before long they’re arranging to meet again in Leeds where Kate lives. Romance slowly blossoms and a few months later Scott asks Kate to move in with him to his luxurious seafront apartment in Brighton. Kate agrees without a moment’s hesitation and moving day looms. But then Scott vanishes. He doesn’t answer Kate’s calls or her texts. Kate’s first thought is that he’s lying dead in a ditch somewhere so rushes down to Brighton with all of her worldly possessions and a moving van in tow, only to find his apartment completely bare. No Scott. None of Scott’s stuff. Apart from one thing. His phone. Against her better judgement and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, Kate hacks into Scott’s phone. What she discovers will change her life forever…

This is a well-written, easy to devour supernatural thriller that had me turning the pages at the rate of knots. I really liked Kate but also found her utterly annoying at times. She is a little bit needy but then I think I would have completely fallen to bits a lot sooner if I were in the same situation. I loved how current Arnopp has made this story and I’m afraid I recognised myself in Kate a little – I think many people will. How often do YOU have to check your phone? Ghoster is also a stark reminder that dating in this day and age is a darn complicated business! It seems a lot has changed in the last 12 years since I first met my other half.

Once I warmed to Kate (which didn’t take long) I knew I had to see the journey through with her. I just had to know what was going on. Where the strange calls were coming from, what the blue things were and what was the cause of the strange scratch marks on the door. Her search for missing Scott takes up a large proportion of the novel and the mystery element was intriguing. I did find myself wanting Kate to quit moaning a couple of times and just get on with it. I understand that she was torn by the ethics of the situation but we all know she’s going to do it so stop questioning things and get on with it, Kate! We’re with you every step of the way! I loved the last section of the book though, particularly the diary chapters when the reader discovers a lot more about one of the characters. My heart broke. When everything is laid bare for the reader you can’t help but feel sad that things were not meant to be – because they would have been flipping awesome.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. It’s a fun and entertaining novel which I enjoyed. Arnopp has created a book which, if you use a smartphone, will make you think long and hard about how much you use it and whether you *could* actually manage without it. I don’t think I will be putting my phone in the bin just yet though! Not until the strange whispering phone calls start anyway. I am even more excited to read The Last Days of Jack Sparks now and can certainly see why Arnopp’s books are so incredibly popular.

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.

Kate, a Paramedic and reformed smartphone addict, hasn't heard from her boyfriend Scott for 24 hours.  He won't return her calls and messages and tomorrow she is supposed to be leaving her home and job to move more than 250 miles and start a new life with him in Brighton.  Kate refuses to believe that she has been 'ghosted', or dumped, by Scott.  Maybe he's just busy getting things ready for her to move in.  Or maybe something else has happened to prevent him contacting her.  He could be hurt or, dead...  So a panicked Kate drives down to Brighton anyway to find out what has happened.  Everything will be fine, she tells herself.  But in Brighton there is no sign of Scott and his flat is completely empty.  Literally everything is gone and the electricity is off.  Ah, but hang on there is one thing that has been left behind.  Scott's smartphone lays on the floor in a corner of the flat's balcony.  Maybe the phone will explain where Scott has gone if she takes a peek, but Kate promised herself that she would not be drawn to the technology again.  She gave up smartphones and social media because something awful happened while she was seriously addicted.  But how else is she going to find out where Scott is and why he seems to have abandoned her in such a heartless way? So Kate promises herself that she will only use the phone to find Scott and sort things out with him.  It's only a smartphone after all...

I really enjoyed this book.  What starts off as a relationship drama soon becomes something much darker and creepier.  That's not to say there isn't some humour along the way.  Kate is rather flaky and not the easiest character to like but her 'brain voice' is hilarious at times, though that humour is often on the black side.  

This is a fantastic modern horror story about addiction and maybe something more otherworldly.  It's crazy and far-fetched, yes, but wildly entertaining and besides who wants to read serious stuff all the time?  Not me ;)

I really did want to love this book. A Sincere Warning.....and The Last Days Of Jack Sparks still keep me awake some nights if my mind drifts to them.
I found Kate irritating after a while and her interactions with friends and colleagues didn’t ring true at all (putting ‘owt’ in speech to signify where a character is from is lazy and annoying)..She made decisions that I not only didn’t agree with but which didn’t seem to fit her character or the overall narrative. I was outright rolling my eyes at Scott’s Big Secret of porn addiction. Overwrought, overwritten and I just couldn’t identify with either main character enough to care what happened to them. An interesting sub plot concerning the paramedic posting grim photos on specialist sites just fizzled out, detracting from the message about how social media drags people in in different ways and for different reasons.
Flashes of the author’s adeptness at setting a spooky scene were frustrating when more unconvincing drama followed them. The spirits themselves were pale and uninteresting.
I bought copies of Last Days for friends and family with “you HAVE to read this!” written on cards. I wouldn’t really want to do that for this book, which is incredibly disappointing.
I won’t review this with 2 stars on Amazon as I hate to do down a good author who I can tell puts a lot into the writing of his novels and short stories. However, for me, he missed the mark by miles with this chaotic and unconvincing mishmash of social commentary and horror.

Paramedic Kate meets IT whizz Scott at a retreat for people wanting to detox from the ever present pull of social media. Following a whirlwind romance, Scott asks Kate to move in with him, but when she arrives at his flat, Scott is nowhere to be seen. His flat is devoid of furniture and the only thing Kate can find is his mobile phone, so she decides to track him down using his online presence.

I went into this expecting a psychological thriller, but the author takes the issue of our obsession with social media and crafts a thriller with supernatural occurrences. I felt that it didn't always work, but on the whole it was an intriguing concept which kept me reading.

TW: swearing, sexual scenes, discussion about porn, some violence.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Little, Brown Book Group / Orbit, for the opportunity to read an ARC.