Blurb:
Danny Hook is a directionless twenty-something year old fresh out of therapy. Dealing with his disappointed family and dead-end career, he's sure things couldn't get much worse, until a drink-driving accident …..

Danny is living at home with his parents his sister and nephew. He is disenchanted with life, with the feeling he’s not living up to the expectations of his family, and the fact that his love life is definitely worse for wear.

After leaving a party , trying to stop his best friend Nudge from drink-driving, Everything goes wrong for Nudge, And Danny’s life takes on a whole new direction.
With his new talent of being able to see the dead, Danny is sucked into a life after death drama where he tries to help ghosts, and tries to understand what is going on in the local area.

The way the book went, I did not expect The relationship between Danny and Nudge is excellent, Danny’s move towards ‘adult hood’: taking responsibility for what’s going on around him and his own part in it, the dynamic of the friendship group Are all very well written The addition of some interesting extra characters added a whole extra dimension to this very interesting non-scary ghost story.

Well done, Richy Craven for writing this very interesting Dublin based story.
Thanks to #NetGalley For the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication and exchange for an honest review. Apologies for the late review.

I really rated Spirit Level - on so many levels!

On the face of it, it's a black comedy about a young man dealing with grief, but it's so much more. It's an exploration of friendship, how young people's lives can be blighted by certain mental health issues (so often currently trivialised by politicians and columnists), how counselling can be a struggle, the weight of being a good parent, the journey of trying to find your place in the world...I could go on.

Spirit Level is layered, thought-provoking and satisfying, and funny, touching and such a good read.

Well done Richy Craven. Whatever you write next, I'll buy it...

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book, a ghost story with a difference. Danny Hook is a directionless 20 something year old who is involved in a drink driving accident in which his best friend Paul "Nudge" Nugent is killed. Danny realises that after the crash he is able to see ghosts, but only when he is drunk! The book follows Danny and Nudge as they try to figure out how to help Nudge cross over.
This book was hilarious but also so touching. It deals with grief, loss and mental health issues especially in the context of male friendships which is such an important topic. I laughed and cried my way through this book and it left me just wanting more. The complex relationships between Danny and each of his friends and their families and his own family were so well written.

Many thanks to netgalley and eriubooks for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

Oh Danny and Nudge are such a great duo! The first quarter of the book gives you the feels and then it's chuckles all the way.

I felt the story followed well and the conversations were real. Even though the subject is that of the supernatural it was very easy to see it in the everyday setting.

I got lost a bit with some of the Irish comments - Gaelic football is not my forte! But also loved some of the night references that I could get - hello one flew over the cuckoo's nest!

A great witty page turner.

This is an absolutely wonderful book. Richy Craven is such a find - he has a great voice and a writing style that most new writers would kill for: the tone of a clever, sad, funny friend recounting his experiences to you over a pint. It's a story about being young and directionless, about friendship, and about aching grief. I won't lie, it floored in places. A major new talent.

Spirit Level is quite a book. It’s most certainly not my usual genre but saying that I’m not too sure what genre it belongs to. It’s the debut novel from Ritchy Craven, he’s big on X, formerly known as Twitter, but here he takes the reader on the most hilarious journey. The main character is Danny who after a night out finds himself lucky to be alive. A night out at a party ends with Danny and his pal Nudge in a fatal drink driving accident. While Danny survives, his friend Nudge is not so lucky. Very sad you think, but, unfortunately for Nudge he’s unable to pass over, and here’s where the fun starts. Danny is the only one who can see the ghost of Nudge and so begins a madcap tale of mayhem and madness.
While it is a comedy the author doesn’t shy away from the topics of men’s mental health and how people deal with grief and death.
A super first book, if you need a laugh do yourself a favour and pick this book up.
For me it’s a 4 ⭐️story. Many thanks to #NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
#SpiritLevel

A very enjoyable book that i won’t hesitate to recommend to others. Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it.

A heart-warming yet hilarious novel from an exciting debut author. Although technically a fantasy novel (hello ghosts and nether-worldly happenings), the first half of the book is actually more about loss, grief and the guilt that comes with surviving a traumatic event. My heart broke for Danny, as he struggled with survivor's guilt following a tragic, senseless drink-driving accident which claims the life of his best friend, Nudge. The author beautifully captures the impact that the death of a relatively young man might have on his family and friends, and the difficulty that his peers, other young Irish men in their 20s, might have in talking about their feelings or in processing their grief in a healthy way.

But fortunately, or unfortunately, for Danny, his own near-death experience in the accident has left him with the ability to see and converse with ghosts, including Nudge. This is where the fantasy element of the book kicks in as Nudge and Danny try to discover what's tethering them together and are gradually drawn into a world of paranormal that nether has known existed.

It's a brilliant wee page-turner of a book - funny, empathetic, and so very distinctly Irish. I loved every minute of it and can't wait to see what Richey Craven writes next!

This author’s books have the ability to simultaneously make you unable to stop reading while wishing you could bury the book somewhere deep underground where it can't be found. Compelling and didn’t want it to end! Such fun!

Spirit Level is the heartwarming yet hilarious debut novel from Richy Craven which follows our main character Danny and his best friend Nudge after they both experience a horrific drink-driving accident which leaves Danny traumatised and Nudge, well, dead yet somehow still around.

It’s a book that requires you to suspend belief a little, unless ghosts are already your thing, but when you do you are rewarded by a book that somehow gives you a warm cosy hug while also splits your sides from the constant laughs throughout.

I personally think if a book is a little on the far fetched side it needs some really good fleshed out characters and deeper themes to anchor it back to reality and Richy has mastered both of those within the story of Spirit Level. Each character has their own very distinct personality which jumps from the pages and there are a multitude of really meaty themes running throughout. I think it’s Richy’s ability to balance really tough topics such as men's mental health, death and sudden loss with cracking one liners that makes this the masterpiece that it is. It also helps that the book is bursting with Irishness, think silly county digs and a mountain of slang.

Now I’ll just have to try to start to forgive him for his Corkonian bullying tactics in time for his next book.

Thanks to @gillhessltd and @eriubooks for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you enjoyed this review come follow me on instagram @TravelsEatsReads for more.

A must read for anyone looking for a funny easy read which has that little something extra.

This is not the usual genre of book I go for but I absolutely loved it! I don't really know how to pinpoint the genre but it's in my eyes it's a mix of comedy/literary fiction/Sci-Fi.

I thought that the characters were wonderfully portrayed and the book took so many twists and turns I could not have predicted which was refreshing! I also loved the way that Richy portrayed serious issues in a light hearted and fun way. I would read another book by this author. It's a great light hearted read for fans of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg Films but Irish. (This is the vibe I got)

I enjoyed this book so much. It's a fantastic look at grief and men's mental health, all written in the humour and style I expected from Richy (the M&S Christmas Thread is still living in my head rent free.)

It of course deals with the supernatural, and at some points towards the end it did stray from the usual vibe a little too far. But, overall this was a really enjoyable read.

What can also be commended is that this is an Irish book, but doesn't feel alienating to an international audience. It has charm and heart, but I don't feel the slang or situations would need too much explaining should someone from outside of Ireland pick this up.

Spirit Level by Richy Craven.
Publication Date : April 25th 2024.

This was a really enjoyable debut novel from the author of one of the best Irish Twitter threads I ever read ( Please google it , if you have not yet had the joy of reading about how 16 year old Richy saved Christmas).

Spirit Level is a novel that needs you to suspend belief, whether you believe in ghosts or not, you need to go with it for this book, the reward is an entertaining, moving, funny and poignant read. Danny is in his early 20s, he has graduated from college and from therapy, his working in a local convenience store and life isn't going well. It gets a lot worse when he and his best friend, Nudge are involved in a drink driving accident , which Danny survives but Nudge does not. Danny then discovers, he can now see ghosts but only when he's drunk. Together they have to figure out why Nudge hasn't fully passed to wherever he is meant to go all while Danny has to learn to deal with all that is going on with his own life.

For a book that demands you suspend belief, it was the detailed and very realistic details of the car accident towards the beginning of the book that fully made me commit to this book and these characters. The book does take a little while to get going. I kind of felt about it , how I feel about a new pair of runners. A little bit clunky at first but once you settle in, it is absolutely worth it. I thought the author captured so many emotions from the comical to the serious with huge accuracy and there is some gorgeous sentences and very funny lines throughout. This is a very original take on an often written about phase of life and Craven captures family dynamics,, mental health , loss and friendship with huge heart and accuracy.

The final sections of the book goes right to the supernatural, something I usually wouldn't have any interest in but I was so invested in the story and these characters by this point, nothing could have made me put this book down.

A great debut novel, wonderfully Irish , I could see this book on screen too. Someone should buy the rights to it. I am looking forward to whatever Richy Craven writes next.
4 star.

Richy Craven's debut novel is so much fun, and reminded me of one of my favourite childhood reads - or the grown-up version of it, anyway. I can't say much higher praise than that. It's the story of Danny, a twenty-something who is floating through life and not especially happy about it. Danny gets the shock of his life when his best friend Nudge is killed in a drink-driving accident - and Danny almost killed - and this shock is compunded by the discovery that Danny can now see ghosts... but only when he's had a few.

It's a very clever concept for a novel, a fun spin on contemporary ghost story tropes, and an excellent representation of male mental health - not something you see every day. In his bid to help Nudge figure out why he's still hanging around Earth and not headed off to the afterlife, Danny is taken on a series of increaasqingly bizarre adventures, all while trying to navigate grief and his own anxieties. Craven handles these latter, tougher topics with sensitivity and without coming off as trite. I found Danny's struggles to be quite moving: an impressive enough feat given that I genuinely struggle to connect with male main characters (I know, I know).

The cast of characters feels lived-in and three-dimensional; I especially enjoyed Sven, who is named Steven but is very tall and so the name stuck, and Nudge, who we meet mainly as a ghost, but keeps his weird sense of humour and cracking one-liners after death. Danny also gets a lot of support from his family, which is beautifully drawn - I especially enjoyed his relationship with his (whisper it) half-Corkonian nephew.

When Spirit Level takes a turn further towards the supernatural, I was thoroughly engrossed, and had *no* idea where the story was going to go - but Richy Craven manages to pull off an exciting and rewarding third-act climax that kept me hooked. I will say that the final chapters feel a little deflated after the action of this climax; Spirit Level reads, in its final pages, like it's ripe for a sequel.

If Richy is up for writing it, I'll be first in line. A funny, heartfelt debut novel.

Danny Hook is a directionless twenty-something year old fresh out of therapy. Dealing with his disappointed family and dead-end career, he's sure things couldn't get much worse, until a drink-driving accident leaves his best friend Nudge dead.

Danny also discovers he can see ghosts - but only when he's drunk. Saddled with a best friend who can't leave his side, they must figure out what's going on and why Nudge can't cross over. Can Danny negotiate family life, therapy and a ghost that refuses to fade into the background before time runs out?