A review by blackenedwhiplash
Ghost Story by Peter Straub

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I know a lot of horror novel fans adore this novel including Stephen King himself, but this was underwhelming for me. A lot of it is that personally I wasn't a fan of the way Straub structured the plot, the style and pacing. There's nothing inherently wrong with how the book is written and laid out but it just doesn't satisfy my taste. But some of why I didn't love this novel is less subjective. For one, most characters have as much personality as a wet sock. I didn't feel like I got close to any character and no character had enough uniqueness to stand out and pique interest. For another thing, there are plot holes especially relating to the main villain and their motives/explanation of what's going on. And even then, the explanation of what/why everything is happening is lame as fuck tbh. The plot goes by so slowly and yet the ending is anticlimactic and feels unfinished. Honestly, this book suffers much of what Tommyknockers by Stephen King also suffers from. It has some fantastic scenes peppered throughout a slog of boring scenes. The prose is decent and some of the horror scenes are creepy and very effective, but it always seems to meander once it starts to get great. There is a lot of potential here, but IMO the execution is largely weak, with enough great parts to keep your attention enough to the end. Not a bad book, but I would hasten to say it's a good one. It is good enough that I am interested to check out other works by the same author and see how he fares in a different story.