Harriet Stoker is dead. As a consequence of an unfortunate accident- or was it murder- in the decrepit former student housing Mulcture Hall, Harriet is now a ghost. And she’s not alone- the place is full of spirits, including a large cohort of benign former students who died en masse in a mysterious event at the Hall some years ago. The building also contains older- and considerably more sinister- presences. Harriet just wants to get home to her grandmother but some of her fellow ghosts have very different ideas as to what path she should take in her new afterlife. And who is the unseen narrator, foreseeing all the events as things unfold?

In many ways, this was really a perfect lockdown read because one of the central themes of the story is being trapped in a place, unable to leave, which resonates very well with living in quarantine! In the world that author Lauren James’ has created, there are rules for the afterlife, one of which is explained very simply in that if the ghost leaves the place they died, disintegration of their spirit being follows. Without giving too much else away as spoilers, it’s integral to the plot that the ghosts also have certain special powers and require to find sustaining forms of life energy in various ways to continue existing indefinitely. This is all explained with some relatively simple exposition that works best if accepted at face value.

There’s a solid core cast of supporting players with varying degrees of sub-plot including a sweet romance, although personally I found some of the banter between the friend group a little tiresome at times. The plot skips a long at a decent pace- in fact, Harriet is dead within a couple of pages and it adds quite the frisson to the first paragraph to know she has 20 minutes left to live. Mulcture Hall is a fantastic atmospheric setting, lending an extra spooky ambience to the proceedings. And as for what resides in the basement…

As a character Harriet is a very unpleasant piece of work and in some ways it’s hard to care too much about what happens to her. The story offsets this by seeding an interest in the hidden narrator and by putting things from that perspective (rather than solely through Harriet) is largely what saves the book becoming overwhelmingly negative for me. There’s also a very clever plot twist albeit one with some loose ends. Again, without giving too much away about the ending, I can only guess that perhaps a sequel is intended because in a one star-losing move, the final chapters felt quite rushed and it wasn’t totally clear if the ending was intended as cliff hanger or if that was just...it? If the latter, I have Lots. Of Questions. I’ll be intrigued to see what other people think. For me, this was a highly original, fun, engrossing and very entertaining read, with just the right amount of horror factor and certainly one that I’d both recommend and will be thinking about for some time. 4 very solid stars,

Thank you to Walker Books for provided an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren James’ book The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker is about a scheming ghost named Harriet who sets out to cause chaos in an abandoned building filled with ghosts.

I was very intrigued by this story because it’s not what Lauren James normally writes. You can definitely see her science background shine through however, especially with the character of Qi, and her experiments.

I found the time scale of this book didn’t quite work for me, as the events happening in the presence only seem to last over a week, yet we keep looking back to Roman times to show how long the ghosts have been around. I feel that it would have been better if the ghosts had no real sense of time, so the character development worked more.

I liked Harriet, but after reading Lauren James’ Fan Treaty, I would say that her and Gottie are pretty much the same characters. They both talk the same, and both scheme and plot to get their own way. I liked having a ‘bad’ protagonist, but some of her thinking was very simple, especially when she’s trying to manipulate people into doing her own thing.

I really loved the narrator twist- Lauren James had mentioned that the narrator would be important in a tumblr post, and I was very surprised when I found out who it was! I thought it was a really interesting twist, and it means re-reading with a whole different viewpoint.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the main cast of characters, but I loved the Tricksters. Maybe it’s because I’m a villain kind of person, but I thought Rima, Felix, and Kasper were incredibly boring and twee. I find most friend groups in YA fiction boring however, so another reader may love them.

I also wasn’t sure about the whole ‘powers’ thing. I feel like it didn’t work in a book about ghosts, which seems strange to say, but I found it really strange? I’d much rather read about physical scheming than Harriet being invisible (that she hardly uses), and Rima randomly turning into bats.

*Spoilers* I was also very surprised by the ending! Lauren James often leaves her books open ended with the potential for sequels (Which I’m not entirely sure about anyway), but to leave on an actual cliff hanger? I definitely understand that there is more story to tell, but I’m not sure what other readers will think.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC.