Tuesday, July 9, 2019

"The Saturday Night Ghost Club"


“The Saturday Night Ghost Club”
Written by Craig Davidson
Review by Diana Iozzia

The Saturday Night Ghost Club

For a coming of age story meets 80s nostalgia, with sprinkled in ghost stories and supernatural elements, this book just really did nothing for me. I had high hopes for this, after recently falling in love with many of Stephen King’s books about children, Stranger Things, and My Best Friend’s Exorcism. In hopes that this book would be similar to those, my expectation level was quite high. Sadly, I felt this book to be extremely disappointing.

A true lack of plot and lack of interesting characters completely ruined this book for me. The main character is Jake, who hunts for ghosts with his wacky uncle Calvin, Calvin’s friend, Lex, and Jake’s two friends, Dove and Billy. Jake speaks as an adolescent as he is in the Saturday Night Ghost Club and then looks back on his childhood as an adult. I felt that the older perspective added an element of wisdom that just was not necessary. This book was very long in certain parts, but it wasn’t long enough to provide a fleshed-out story. The characters were appealing enough, but I felt we didn’t get to know them long enough to worry and wonder about them.

They go on a bunch of adventures, led by Uncle Calvin, who starts to act more suspiciously throughout the story. However, this isn’t exactly suspenseful. In the end, we are given an explanation for all of the local legends and ghosts that the club investigates. I felt that if the book was longer and provided more heart and detail, I would have felt more for the characters and enjoyed the story more. The reveal is an interesting surprise and was totally unexpected for this story, but I have heard too many stories in the past 10 years that follow this type of plot twist.

An element that I did really enjoy was the brother relationship between Jake’s father and Calvin. There’s so much kindness, love, and support there. Also, Jake’s dad is just awesome at taking down bullies.

I recommend this book for those who are into these types of stories. I hope you enjoy it more than I did.

I received a complimentary advanced reader’s edition in exchanging for reading and reviewing purposes. Thank you to Penguin Books.

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