Ghost Wall

Published Sept. 19, 2018 by Granta Books.

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4 stars (10 reviews)

1 edition

Review of 'Ghost Wall' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was a bit more descriptive of setting than I like, but it had a good slow burn. Lots of tension and moments where I was bracing myself.

I think it does a good job exploring the mind of someone in an abusive situation. The choices you make for survival. There can be frustration with someone who resists help in that situation, but the story here really shows you how complicated it is for the abused person, especially a child who can’t just leave even if they want to.

I also thought the plot of an Iron Age experiment worked well to bring out some people’s worst. Honestly, it could have gone even further, but it held back overall.

Review of 'Ghost Wall' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A smart, queer teenage girl under the thumb of an abusively chauvinistic and xenophobic father meets a confidently feminist young woman who teaches her that there are possibilities beyond the tiny world her father has prescribed for her. I see this novella as primarily a love story in peculiarly interesting circumstances. Loved it.

Favourite quote:
"No poetry in your soul," said Dan, "that's the problem with girls, they're always thinking about where to pee" [...] It was one of my father's themes, the way women allow their inferior plumbing to shape their relationship with the Great Outdoors.
“Actually", said Molly, "it’s no harder for girls to pee than boys, the problem isn’t biology, it’s men’s fear of women’s bodies. If we were allowed to pull our knickers down and squat by a wall the way you’re allowed to get your dick out and piss up the wall there wouldn’t be …

Review of 'Ghost Wall' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Sylvie's dad is obsessed with the past. She's been forced to spend her summer in a recreation of an Iron Age settlement, wearing scratchy tunics, peeing in the woods and eating meagre rations found in the hedgerows.

Ghost Wall has a slow build tension, as it becomes clear that Sylvie's dad is abusive, controlling every aspect of his wife and child's lives. The camp is being run by a professor, with students who don't take things too seriously, a sore point with her dad. It doesn't take much to set him off and it isn't the students who are the focus of his wrath. I feel like Sarah Moss set out to write a father that was the opposite of Adam in The Tidal Zone.

It's told from the perspective of Sylvie, who makes excuses for her dad. I think deep down she knows what he does is wrong, but …

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