I love the cover and the title is so interesting! However, I felt this book promised more of a ghost story but didn’t really deliver.

Told from Nick’s perspective, his fiancée, Hannah, takes a new job as the director of the Wright Historic House. Things soon start feeling off when Hannah is having trouble sleeping. She is obsessed with reading files she has found around the house but she won’t talk to Nick about it. Then, one morning, Hannah is gone. What happened to Hannah?

I think where I first struggled is this book being in Nick’s POV. I did not like Nick from the start and I would have much preferred at least some parts told from Hannah’s perspective. The pacing was off and the there was a lot of writing that did not flow together. I was really looking forward to a haunted house story and this just fell flat.

I enjoyed this quick, atmospheric novel. The pacing and self-reflection throughout were well-done, even if I wished that some parts of the story weren't quite as rushed.

"A supernatural story of love, ghosts, and madness as a young couple, newly engaged, become caretakers of a historic museum.

When Nick Beron and Hannah Rampe decide to move from New York City to the tiny upstate town of Hibernia, they aren't exactly running away, but they need a change. Their careers have flatlined, the city is exhausting, and they've reached a relationship stalemate. Hannah takes a job as live-in director of the Wright Historic House, a museum dedicated to an obscure nineteenth-century philosopher, and she and Nick swiftly move into their new home. The town’s remoteness, the speed with which Hannah is offered the job, and the lack of museum visitors barely a blip in their consideration.

At first, life in this old, creaky house feels cozy—they speak in Masterpiece Theater accents and take bottles of wine to the swimming hole. But as summer turns to fall, Hannah begins to have trouble sleeping and she hears whispers in the night. One morning, Nick wakes up to find Hannah gone. In his frantic search for her, Nick will discover the hidden legacy of Wright House: a man driven wild with grief, and a spirit aching for home."

Gothic yeah!

The Ghost Notebooks by Ben Dolnick is an eerie, compelling novel about newly engaged couple Hannah and Nick. When Hannah loses her job at the New York Historical Society, she starts looking for work outside New York City. She finds The Wright House, and small museum with a big history (one that is not shared with her before hire), and becomes caretaker. The move to Hibernia, NY is good for the couple. Initially.

“The line between romantic getaway and lonely creepy farmhouse is, it turns out, fairly thin.”

Dolnick has crafted a chilly, atmospheric novel laced with humor. It highlights the delicate balance between what a person shares about an experience and what an experience actually entails. How well do we really know those who are closest to us? I suspect it’s almost never as well as we think.

This is a story about what haunts us. What we think about when we can’t sleep at night. What we can live with, and what we can live without. Despite these big themes, it’s a slim novel and an easy read – one I’d recommend to those who love a ghost story that does not veer towards horror.

Nick Beron isn’t initially happy when his girlfriend suggests they need a change. Hannah Rempe is captivated by a potential job offer in Hibernia, NY, offering her a chance to oversee the Edmund Wright Historical House. Nick has become complacent with their current lifestyle, but he soon recognizes that they’ve both fallen into a rut as even his own musical dreams have stagnated. Nick hopes that the job at the museum will reignite their passions, both for their careers as well as each other. But will a haunting presence overwhelm them instead?

Atmosphere is crucial to the success of THE GHOST NOTEBOOKS and Ben Dolnick does a marvelous job at making it work! Told through the eyes of Nick, we see the hopefulness as they make the change and move to Hibernia. We also see the slow but gradual decline in Hannah as she begins hearing voices and starts acting oddly. The action isn’t quick paced by any means. Instead, the story meanders slowly but purposefully towards a very startling conclusion.

I love how Ben Dolnick intersperses the notion of ghosts amongst the all too realistic scenario of mental illness. Is Hannah’s decline a result of something supernatural? Or has she simply stopped taking her medication? Nick’s unreliability as a narrator makes the story all the more fascinating as we try to unravel exactly what is happening to this seemingly normal couple.

THE GHOST NOTEBOOKS is the kind of book you savor slowly, as the tension builds gradually with each page turned. I wasn’t sure what to expect from THE GHOST NOTEBOOKS when I started but I’m more than pleasantly surprised by this cerebral take on the horror genre. THE GHOST NOTEBOOKS won’t appeal to all readers but its unique approach to ghosts makes it distinctive and well worth the read. I only wish that Edmund Wright was a real person so I could read more about his fascinating research. And yes, I’ll definitely be reading more by Ben Dolnick in the future!

*review is in the editing queue at Fresh Fiction*

The description of this book and the actual story are not entirely the same... I wanted to read the book advertised in the blurb.

Nick Beron and Hannah Rampe decide to make a life changing move from Brooklyn to the remote town of Hibernia, New York in order for Hannah to pursue a new job opportunity. At first this change seems to be the answer to their relationship troubles - Nick and Hannah can get away from the busy city and settle into a quaint, historical house where they can focus on their careers and each other - but as time progresses, Nick begins to see a shift in Hannah's demeanor and ultimately finds himself dealing with a horrific tradegdy.

While there were undoubtedbly some beautifully written descriptions and passages, overall I felt that this book was a bit disjointed. Upon reading the synopsis, I immediately throught this would be a great cross between Stephen King's The Shining and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, but I was wrong. This book had so much potential, but I felt as though it peaked too quickly and we were not given enough character development throughout the book, most specifically in the case of those working at the Wright House. In terms of the whole ghost aspect of this novel, I felt like the exerpts were just okay. They gave enough information but I could easily see how someone would be completely confused over the fact that they are there in the first place. Overall, I felt like this book was just okay and predictable.

I recently finished The Ghost Notebooks and I have no idea how I feel about it. It was OK I guess. The book was definitely not what I was expecting. I wouldn't call it a supernatural story because, to me, it wasn't. So don't go into this book expecting a ghost story. The basic set up is that Nick and Hannah are stalemated in their relationship. When Hannah gets a job as curator and caretaker for a small historical museum in upstate New York, they decide to make a fresh start and move there. Hannah begins to go off the rails and disappears.



I'm not really sure what kept me reading this book. It was really slow for the first two thirds of the story. I guess I kept waiting for the ghost story to start up. Instead, I got pages of a depression and decent into madness from the main character. The entire story is told from Nick's perspective. So we never get to see what Hannah is thinking or her motivation behind anything she does. Is she really hearing ghosts or is she going mad because she stopped taking her medication? I never got a sense either way. The ending was rushed and made little sense to me. In the end, I can't say for sure what the author was trying to do with this story. I'm just not sure I would really recommend this book.

link will be live 3/9/2018

If you're in the mood for something light-hearted about love and ghosts, put this one down and seek something else, come back to it later. From the synopsis, I expected it to be dark but it was even darker. It'll make you think and come back to haunt you later on if you give it a proper chance, the kind of book that sinks into you over time. I finished it four days ago but was completely unsure how to write a review at first.

Nick and Hannah are in a rut. They've been together for a long time without getting engaged, and they seem to be drifting apart. Nick has been putting off proposing, but when he gets a glimpse of life without Hannah... he realizes it's time to commit. An opportunity for a drastic life change presents itself. After losing her job, Hannah has been offered a new one as a caretaker for a historical museum: the Wright Historic House, so named for a philosopher from the nineteenth century.

A museum practically in the middle of nowhere with no internet and few visitors, their new lives couldn't be more different than their old ones in New York City. At first, they thrive. With only each other for entertainment, they become closer. Sadly, it doesn't last. As the weather turns cooler, Hannah starts to drift away. She's barely sleeping and hearing things at night. And then she vanishes.

Truly a story of love, ghosts, and madness, as stated in the synopsis. It has light moments early on, but is overwhelmingly bleak in general. It is an odd sort of story, a bit confusing at times, but all comes together in the end and it's very well-written. It's very raw and will make you think. It won't be for everyone, but it was for me. 4.5 out of 5, rounded up.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

When Hannah is hired as the live-in director of the Wright Historic House she and her fiance, Nick, are thrilled. It's a new start in a new place and at first they both enjoy exploring the drafty old building and its surroundings...and then things change. If you've been reading my posts for long at all, you know how much I love books that involve hauntings. This one is different from most, and that's what made me enjoy it so much. Those Ghost Notebooks isn't scary, but it's definitely suspenseful. Almost the entire book is told from Nick's point of view. He's an easy character to like and I really did care what happened to the couple.

An intriguing mystery that explores the links between emotions and "hauntings." A young couple move into a small museum and become caretakers of the place, but soon find strange phenomena upsetting the balance of their relationship. Atmospheric and suspenseful, this was a quick read that held my attention throughout.

Nick and Hannah are at a breaking point. Either they move on or they move forward in their relationship. After a brief fight, they decided to make the best of it and move upstate to a small historical homestead. At first, it’s fun. There are tour groups, the remote wilderness is a change from the busy streets of New York.

But then the cracks show. Hannah starts not sleeping. She claims to hear voices. She stays up all night, reading and researching in a little storage rom. Then one morning…Hannah leaves. What follows is Nick’s spiral into depressions, confusion and madness.

The Ghost Notebooks is suspenseful without being a suspense book. It’s mysterious without being a mystery. It’s supernatural, it’s lyrical and it’s beautiful.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I initially picked up this book for three reasons: old houses, Masterpiece Classic accents and ghosts. The Ghost Notebooks didn’t exactly deliver what I was expecting but successfully gives the reader a dose of madness, mystery and touch of the paranormal.

Nick and Hannah are a young couple living in NYC when she is offered the job of a live-in caretaker and historian for an old house in upstate New York. This is something new for them to try to venture out of their rut and Nick figures it’ll give him some time to try again at being a musician. While idyllic at first, Hannah starts having some problems… and misses some of her medicine… and stops sleeping… all in search of some of the mysteries the house holds. Quickly diving down a deep hole of their relationship and their impending (or potentially doomed?) marriage, shit very quickly hits the fan.

One aspect of this book that left me with questions is Nick as the storyteller. He would be an excellent example of an untrustworthy narrator and had me thinking, “How would this book be different written from Hannah’s eyes… or even a third-party’s perspective?” So much of this novel dealt with the death of their relationship, in a sense, and so I feel like seeing the events through a man’s perspective who admits that he didn’t really pay attention might greatly affect what information we are and aren’t being given.

The Ghost Notebooks was a fast read that kept me hooked. While I don’t know if I was entirely sold on how the paranormal was used, The Ghost Notebooks did take turns that I did not expect. Check this book out if you love ghost stories and you’d like to read something a little different in the horror genre.

Ghosts are not real.

I know it in my head and I'm totally sure about that.

But sometime when I'm home alone and I hear a little noise I get unnerved and the laundry room in our basement can feel a bit creepy. One time I was exploring a semi-abandoned building owned by a friend. Just as I approached a doorway, the door swung shut blocking my way. That scared me for real.

In Ben Dolnick's new book, The Ghost Notebooks, we never know if the ghosts are real or not. Nick and Hannah are in a troubled relationship. Nick thinks Hannah wants him to propose but he has concerns. Their fights have become more volatile and happen more often, and Hannah is unwilling to share the details of her past mental breakdowns. But after seeing his potential future in an aging divorcee drinking alone in a neighborhood bar, Nick decides to put his worries aside and attempt a new beginning. Hannah's new job as the director of a historical home museum, once owned by obscure writer Edmund Wright, seems like the perfect opportunity to restart.

At first things are great. They love the small town life, exploring the outdoors, cooking together, and digging into the history of the museum. Then Hannah starts hearing voices and isn't able to sleep. She spends the nights researching the home's prior residents, their disturbing notebooks, and the unexplained disappearances that tarnish the house's reputation. Then Hannah disappears and Nick starts to realize that she was more emotionally troubled than he thought. Now he is determined to discover whether the house is inhabited by evil spirits, if Hannah's mind turned against her, or if his own actions drove her to a tragic end.

The Ghost Notebooks explores of how relationships can crumble under pressure, and how grief can affect memories and lead to extreme behavior. I think Ben Dolnick wants us to believe the Wright House hauntings are real but I have my doubts. Sometime a door is just stuck open and the weight of a footstep on the floor allows it to close.

Loved the start to this novel, it hooked me in and made me want to keep turning the page. I loved the descriptions of Manhattan vs. upstate, and a throughly modern couple. However, I didn't find them a believable couple, and the second half started to lose me. I wanted more of a conclusion, and to hear from Hannah more. I was hoping the second half would be from her point of view (despite the obvious Gone Girl reference). Nick didn't seem like a very good person, so it was hard to feel for him through his grief (though the depictions of grief were stark and realistic.) A fun read, but left me wanting more.

I'm not sure how to categorize this book. A ghost marital drama? Self exploration wrapped in literary horror? When I got to the last page I set it down feeling confused. Not a bad confused, necessarily, but also not the sort of confusion that leaves you wondering and explorative. I just finished this one moments ago, set it down, and it will be easy to walk away from, because something didn't quite stick. I didn't really understand whether this was trying to be spooky, or an examination of relationships or...well. I don't know.

It was weird, and I do really like that about it. It was strange and very different from anything else I've come across in a while. I very much liked the snippets of quotes, discussion questions, stream of consciousness bits that were interspersed throughout the story. It gave it a bit of an avant garde, labyrinthian feel, like a crooked story about a creepy, crooked house.

I think this would be a great, haunting read to pick up in October, when the air is starting to bite, and a cast of grey spills over the sky as the sun sets.

I'm between 2.5 and 3 stars here.

Nick and Hannah's relationship is in a bit of a tumultuous phase—she recently lost her job, they've both been reluctant to talk about getting married even though that is the next logical step in their relationship, and there's tension all over the place—when Hannah admits that she has applied for a job as the director of the Wright Historic House, a museum devoted to an obscure 19th century writer and philosopher in a tiny upstate New York town.

The time between her first phone interview and the job offer seems to fly, and while leaving New York City for a small town isn't quite what Nick had in mind, he's realized he doesn't want to lose Hannah. And for a while everything seems charming—they speak to each other in Masterpiece Theater-like accents, enjoy visiting the town's one grocery store, and can finally listen to the sounds of nature outside their home as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the city. But then the reality of running a museum that very few visitors come to, and dealing with the machinations of a volunteer related to the person whose life the museum commemorates becomes more of a chore than a pleasure.

One night Hannah wakes Nick claiming to hear voices talking, but Nick hears nothing. There have been rumors through the years that the Wright House is visited by ghosts, and a woman whose family lived in the house before it became a museum once disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The stress of being convinced she is seeing and hearing things starts to take its toll on Hannah's already-fragile psyche and her relationship with Nick, which is already straining under the stress of trying to settle on wedding arrangements.

Nick awakens one morning to find Hannah gone. As he tries to figure out what happened to her, he starts to realize she was more emotionally fragile than even he realized, and he is determined to understand whether the house really is possessed by spirits which haunted Hannah, or whether it was her own mind playing tricks on her. His quest forces him to confront concepts of ghosts and the legacy of a troubled writer, and compels him in directions he'd never imagined before.

I honestly wasn't too sure what to make of The Ghost Notebooks. It's certainly an interesting exploration of how a relationship fares under intense pressure, emotional and otherwise, and it's also a look at how grief and extreme emotional stress can cause you to act in very bizarre ways. But I don't know what Ben Dolnick was really trying to say about the situation his characters found themselves in, and whether there really was something supernatural going on, or whether it was some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've read all of Dolnick's other books—Zoology, You Know Who You Are and At the Bottom of Everything—and I really enjoy the way he writes, and the complexity he brings to his characters. I felt that on the whole, the story flowed well, but it went a little off the rails after a while, and I don't know if that was intentional or not. In the end, while there were some poignant parts of the story, it didn't resonate for me as I'd hoped it would. But if anyone else reads this and has a different take, I'd love to hear it!

NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

A hard pass for me - the writing is assured, but the characters (especially Nick) are grating to a degree that I found myself grinding my teeth while reading and the suspense, such as it is, would be better served by a different medium.