A review by esdeecarlson
Ghost Story by Peter Straub

2.0

I really wanted to like this book. It felt as though it were trying for a strong small-town ensemble story but couldn't quite make the town compelling as a character. The Chowder Society, around which much of the plot spins, was lovely, but I was not a fan of Don Wanderley, who became the main character about midway through the novel, and who felt to me like an annoyingly blatant self-insert hero. I was never frightened of the "Nightwatchers" or at all convinced of their cosmic horror. The best moments for me were in a few side character vignettes. Peter Straub is clearly an excellent prose writer, but the plot elements and the horror did not do it for me in this book.