Book Review: Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

The 'Ghosts' to which the title of Dolly Alderton's forthcoming debut novel refers are something I'd wondered about prior to reading. The ghosts of relationships past? Ghosts of lost loved ones? The ghosts of opportunities missed? Turns out, it's all of those things. I read Dolly's memoir, Everything I Know About Love, last year and it quickly earned a place on my favourites shelf. She's of a similar-ish age to me, and I found I could relate to a lot of the nineties/noughties anecdotes and memories that peppered her debut work. So when I saw that she was releasing a novel, I couldn't wait to read!

Ghosts tells the story of Nina, a thirty-something single woman living in London and working as a food writer. The book will be right up your street if you love authors like Marian Keyes and Jojo Moyes, but I feel like Dolly has her own strong author's voice that sets her apart. 

Nina has just bought her own flat, and is looking forward to a promising career and the launch of her next book. Watching the friends she grew up with marry off and settle down, Nina turns to a dating app in search of love. It's here that she meets Max, and they hit it off almost instantly. That is, before he cuts ties suddenly and with no explanation, leaving Nina hurt, confused, and angry. Trying to process what's happened at the same time as dealing with a father suffering from dementia, Nina is struggling to keep afloat.

I really enjoyed this book. I think it portrayed clearly and with real warmth and humour the reality faced by so many women in their twenties and thirties today. At 32, Nina is feeling the pressure to settle down and start a family, but finds it hard to find time for dating when she's just purchased her first home, is working in a highly pressurised industry, and is trying to be the model friend and daughter. It really showed how hard it can be trying to be everything to everyone, and the pressures we put ourselves under; maintaining friendships into your twenties/thirties once you're out of school and university and everyone is at different stages in their lives takes real effort, effort we didn't have to make when our timetables all looked the same. 

I loved the relationship that Nina has with her Dad, and how she comes to accept over time that, rather than not caring, her Mum is struggling to process her husband's illness in her own way. The characters in the book have changed as they've progressed into adulthood, and even changed over the course of the novel, and the narrative shows that that's okay; we have to accept that the people we love will change and grow and we need to be adaptable to that. 

Apart from Nina's dad, there aren't really any 'good' or likeable men in the novel. They all seem awful. Despite this, Nina has a really good relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Joe, as they split up in mostly amicable circumstances. It was great to see Nina have this positive relationship with someone she shared such a huge part of her life with, and for her to feel genuinely happy for him as he moved on with someone else. 

Finally, I thought the novel was really funny, and there were so many references to modern culture and society. Dolly's voice from Everything I Know About Love really shone through and I think I'd have guessed it was her writing if I didn't know already!

Ghosts was a great novel that I would recommend. The only thing I thought felt slightly out of place was Nina's encounter with her rowdy downstairs neighbour, that I felt seemed slightly out of place. Other than that, a great read and one I absolutely whizzed through. It highlights the importance and value of true friendship, and of home. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin (Fig Tree) for the review copy. Ghosts is published 15th October 2020.