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A review by achillreads
The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver
5.0
grief is a hard thing. be it a feeling or reading or an exploration. but reading about liam's feelings of grief and how their life located around it made me come to terms with my own feelings of grief. it made me teary and angry, but progressively better. mason deaver put to words what i have been trying to let myself feel all those years.
i both have a lot to say about this book, but i also am at a loss of words.
it has this beautiful sense of the pathos of things that wrap around you throughout the book.
we see, not only liam but, many other people in ethan's life go through the loss of him. be it parents, friends, or a lover. that has to be the part that stung me the most. it was an all too familiar nightmare. losing your beloved, not being able to face things, all the pain, and all the resentment that comes with it. the feeling of all the dreams fading away so suddenly... seeing all the nightmares i have played out like that was heavy, yet in a great way.
the language of the book conveys the feeling of a kid like liam so well. he is a teenager, after all, a child. we see the "queer grief" of him unravelling. they not only lose their big brother but also their whole "life" alongside. the saying of "everything happens for a reason" echoes constantly as he slowly cuts ties with his past life and as he tries to get himself back on.
he loses his best friends, he is not at a good place mentally. all these things that seemed like forever to him suddenly disappeared. his brother is not there and never will be, and that is heavy, and he just wants someone close to him to be there. but, as they find out, he doesn't have that support with him.
we see this kid pick his life apart and grow along it. he realizes the way everything has an end, and that is what adds them value. the people you care about will not be there forever, nor will you, and so you should cherish your moments. the people you think you can't be yourself without may not be as essential to you as you think they are, and that's perfectly normal. that's life.
that's why i ended up loving the ghosts we keep by mason deaver. thank you for writing this book. i can't wait to read more from them.
i both have a lot to say about this book, but i also am at a loss of words.
it has this beautiful sense of the pathos of things that wrap around you throughout the book.
we see, not only liam but, many other people in ethan's life go through the loss of him. be it parents, friends, or a lover. that has to be the part that stung me the most. it was an all too familiar nightmare. losing your beloved, not being able to face things, all the pain, and all the resentment that comes with it. the feeling of all the dreams fading away so suddenly... seeing all the nightmares i have played out like that was heavy, yet in a great way.
the language of the book conveys the feeling of a kid like liam so well. he is a teenager, after all, a child. we see the "queer grief" of him unravelling. they not only lose their big brother but also their whole "life" alongside. the saying of "everything happens for a reason" echoes constantly as he slowly cuts ties with his past life and as he tries to get himself back on.
he loses his best friends, he is not at a good place mentally. all these things that seemed like forever to him suddenly disappeared. his brother is not there and never will be, and that is heavy, and he just wants someone close to him to be there. but, as they find out, he doesn't have that support with him.
we see this kid pick his life apart and grow along it. he realizes the way everything has an end, and that is what adds them value. the people you care about will not be there forever, nor will you, and so you should cherish your moments. the people you think you can't be yourself without may not be as essential to you as you think they are, and that's perfectly normal. that's life.
that's why i ended up loving the ghosts we keep by mason deaver. thank you for writing this book. i can't wait to read more from them.