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A review by alexaisreading
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
adventurous
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Silvie’s father is infatuated with the Iron Age, how the ancient Britons lived, an obsession that at least in part explains his exaggerated masculine biases and abusive behavior. On one particular summer holiday, when Silvie is 17, he takes his wife and daughter with him to live off of the land with a professor and university students enrolled in an experimental archaeology course. Ultimately, a mock ghost wall, a fence staked with ancestral skulls to ward off enemies through intimidation, is built, and a mock sacrifice takes place. To me, the existence of “bog bodies” is much more haunting than the ghost wall (feel free to Google that if you’re up for it).
It took me a few days to understand why I felt the way I do about Ghost Wall— and that’s because a pervasive feeling of incompleteness is left behind. The scope of the novel sets up the narrative for a lack of context to some degree, and the few memories and comparisons to home life don’t close the many gaps. I’m not sure what was really said about male and female (sexuality felt very binary in this book), and I expected a bit more discourse on modern politics and economics.
Silvie refers often to a time when she can leave, get away from her abusive father, but even the end of the book, which sort of comes from left field, isn’t suggestive of her success. She is also telling the story from sometime in the future, which made me wonder what the effect might have been had she commented on where she is now. Moss’s latest Summerwater is a favorite book, so maybe my expectations for Ghost Wall were too high.
It took me a few days to understand why I felt the way I do about Ghost Wall— and that’s because a pervasive feeling of incompleteness is left behind. The scope of the novel sets up the narrative for a lack of context to some degree, and the few memories and comparisons to home life don’t close the many gaps. I’m not sure what was really said about male and female (sexuality felt very binary in this book), and I expected a bit more discourse on modern politics and economics.
Silvie refers often to a time when she can leave, get away from her abusive father, but even the end of the book, which sort of comes from left field, isn’t suggestive of her success. She is also telling the story from sometime in the future, which made me wonder what the effect might have been had she commented on where she is now. Moss’s latest Summerwater is a favorite book, so maybe my expectations for Ghost Wall were too high.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Sexism