A review by loomisknows
Ghostwritten: The extraordinary first novel from the author of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, David Mitchell

2.0

This book was rubbish. Essentially, it's a collection of short snippets of short stories that are all connected (though often barely). If it followed any one of the characters it could be interesting but it's more like watching a recap episode of a 700 episode strong anime.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to appreciate that "oh god that painting on the wall is the one the woman in the abusive relationship stole" or like "oh my the weird raunchy maid is granddaughter of the rape baby from China!" like wow-and why do I care? Lots of interesting concepts but never brought into being a proper story. The parts I remember best I remember purely because the writing was bizarrely disgusting, like when a child gets raped and they decide to tell us about something ripping inside her. Like thanks.
Also all the sex scenes were gross and deeply unpleasant and just the descriptions of things were very gag-inducing.

Reading this was a grind, but the interconnections made me think that there would be a critical mass where it all came together and was suddenly good-it didn't happen.