4 out of 5 stars
This is not your typical ghost story! If you’re looking for traditional thrills and chills this is not the story for that…but if you’re looking for an interesting twist on a popular trope with multi-layered dimensions and characters then you’re in for a real treat!
A Perfectly Fine House took the oddity of haunting and kinda turned it on its head. Imagine a world where ghosts were common place, just an integral part of everyday existence. What I loved most is that these authors really delve into what that would look like in a practical way, including issues like prejudice and how the whole idea of death itself changes. You get whole new industries constructed around this idea (both legal and illegal), elected officials representing the very different wants/needs of their respective spectral and non-spectral citizens, and a whole slew of problems that arise from so clearly knowing exactly what awaits you after death. You have some people that seem to live as if they’ll get a chance to work on that bucket-list in the afterlife so no need to worry about making the most of life now. Or you can even see the flip side of that where people seem to shirk their responsibilities, like raising their own children, why not have ghost Nana do that and we’ll get the grandkids in the afterlife.
On top of all this intriguing material you have this building issue of this anomaly of a place completely devoid of haunting whatsoever and that’s only the beginning. Soon this anomaly is spreading and it is threatening the ghost community far and wide. The really engrossing thing to me is also what it means for the living. When you’ve lived as if you know you have forever what could a sudden uncertainty about that mean to you? The very foundation of all their lives and afterlives combined are being called to question and it makes for a riveting read!
I can truly say I’ve never read a ghost story anything like this and it was refreshing and fascinating in so many non-paranormal ways, it was quite the surprise.
I received a copy of this book from the author and this is my honest review.
Bookworm Coalition 