The Ghost Writer
About
Enter Into A State Of Madness If You Dare...
Willkommen!
You’re embarking on a journey to a place that may appear ordinary, but its tranquil veneer hides unspeakable horrors. You think to turn back, but the billboard up ahead shows it’s already too late...
Welcome To Iowa
Meet John Sterling, an English professor whose dream of becoming a writer seems hopeless until he gets the offer of a lifetime to be the ghostwriter for the famous horror author, Martin Knight. John leaps at the chance, but soon finds that the story has a life of its own. John must confront an inhuman evil before he and his family become the next victims in Knight’s latest horror masterpiece. As your own sanity erodes on this journey, just remember...
At Least You’re Not In Kansas
Praise for this book
“If it’s a horror story with a happy ending, then this Butch guy isn’t doing it right,” a character observes of a book she’s reading deep into Warner’s sweeping and playful debut, a horror novel that’s often about horror novels. As protagonist John “Jack” Sterling becomes an assistant professor in Iowa’s storied writing program and impulsively moves his family to a creepy farmhouse, much of the mystery and suspense comes from The Ghost Writer’s relationship with its own genre, as Warner indulges in frequent homages—sometimes parodic—to the work of Stephen King. Sometimes this is clever, like a downtown shop named Desirable Goods; sometimes, it’s dismayingly cute, as in many chapter titles (“Dr. Insomnia”) or when the veteran horror author who hires John as a ghostwriter has a Doberman, Jojo, named for one of his books. And sometimes, it’s vibe-killing—a mysterious figure that should get under readers’ skin declares, like the villain in a Scary Movie spoof, “When you hear the call of the wolves, the children will be in the corn.”
The good news for readers who like it darker: as the pages quickly pass, The Ghost Writer reveals itself as an earnest, surprising, highly readable, sometimes disturbing horror extravaganza. Amid the many familiar elements—recovering alcoholic husband/father facing writer’s block; child on the spectrum who chats with unseen forces; small-town cabal with a murderous secret—Warner conjures startling innovations, like smart, unpredictable use of excellent props (old steamer trunk, vintage typewriter, dog-eared horror novel, black cube of unknown provenance). Scenes of a fraying marriage unnerve and resonate, especially as John loses control, and his thwarted literary ambitions feel stingingly real.
The town’s dark secret is typical genre stuff but written with brisk, pleasing energy and a strong sense of play. At times, the story moves too fast, especially when it comes to establishing atmosphere or when characters encounter and accept the supernatural. The set pieces, both intimate and horror-novel crazy, have the juice, and the ending is—as Warner’s protagonist would appreciate—done “right.”