I hadn't realized that this was a collection of linked short stories upon first read of the description, but diving into it, I felt like the changes in pace and perspective really lent this book an incredible range of both experience and emotion. We start with the revelation that a man has been leading a double life, and his daughter (who doesn't know she is his daughter) is his caretaker, then sweep past colonial past-lives and through the interweaving of family connections and disconnections. This book is really an experience.

Card's writing is supple and sublime-- a pleasure to read and, I imagine, a good novel to hear read to you if audiobooks are your style. Once you understand who the characters are, you can see their place in the web. I don't remember seeing a family tree in the front of the ARC (there may have been?) but either way, the characters reappear time and again like threads in a hem. Truly, the title fits, and strains of magical realism poke at the edges of the novel. Recommended!

This ended up being just okay for me. After seeing so many raving reviews, I think I went into this with too high of expectations. Ultimately, while the premise was interesting I just couldn't connect with the characters or story.

When I first picked up <b>These Ghosts Are Family</b> I thought it would be a contemporary novel focused on telling Stanford Solomon's story. How he assumes the life of another man (Abel Paisley) and the impact this decision has on his family for generations to come. Yes, it is that story. But it is also a sweeping historical fiction that traces his Jamaican roots back to the 1700s. In this regard it reminds me of Yaa Gyasi's book [book:Homegoing|27071490]. But that is where the similarity ends. <b>These Ghosts Are Family</b> is a totally original work that deals with some very hard hitting issues. In the novel, the ghosts that haunt us are not only the mistakes of the past, but also the divisions that separate us as a people today. It is astounding the number of historical references that Card provided. I'm impressed with the skillful way that she introduced Jamaican culture and used magical realism to influence the telling of this important story.

<i>Special thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Maisy Card for access to this book.</i>

I admittedly struggled with this one overall - I loved the writing and individually each part intrigued me, but felt it was a series of interconnected short stories rather than a novel. I felt like more time within each part would have strengthened this for me.

Absolutely LOVED this book! What a refreshing debut novel. Maisy Card did such a very great job. I loved reading a book written by a Caribbean person, that features Caribbean characters who are so well done.

This book was rich in story line and characters. Almost feels like too much to keep track of at times. I referred back to the family tree many times. I enjoyed reading a story about a Caribbean family as I haven't read many.

‘These Ghosts Are Family’ is such a well-written novel. The style and humor immediately drew me in. I was fascinated by the family relationships surrounding Abel Paisley. The novel is not a linear story, but a series of stories about a number of family members, both past and present. Because it jumps around so much, it’s a bit difficult to follow when a new family member’s story is introduced and it takes time to determine its relationship and significance. Card has written in multiple styles and formats and evokes such beautiful, fascinating places and scenes. What a stunning novel. I would also recommend the audiobook version as the narrator’s voice is rich and inflective.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC.

I loved this book, and look forward to reading more of what Maisy Card puts out there. It was impressive by any standards, but especially impressive as a debut. I think anyone who was a fan of Pachinko, Homegoing or other multigenerational family sagas will be drawn to this novel. Where I think it is different and interesting, is the characters are almost all behaving badly. But Card renders the characters with empathy and a wide ranging eye for the ways that trauma is passed through generations and how opportunity cost is often billed to the family members without their consent or necessarily even their benefit. I found the threads that Maisy Card pulls on to be fascinating, human and broad-reaching. I have recommended this to anyone who has asked me for a book rec in the past few weeks.

This is an epic story of family and the consequences of one's actions. It's heavy yet enjoyable. There were times I laughed out loud and others when I nearly cried. It's a fascinating look at ancestry, and how the lives of the living are affected by those who pass, even long after they're gone.

Here we have an elderly man who faked his own death thirty years ago and has finally decided to come clean. The novels follows the stories that were the the consequences of his decision and tell the story of both of his families, going back to colonial Jamaica and continuing to present day Harlem. The perspective shifts throughout the novel, which was fun at times but requires really paying attention so you know who is being referred to and what time frame it is. The writing is gorgeous, and the author does a beautiful job conjuring up emotional, vivid scenes.

I recommend this one for readers of literary fiction.

This book is beautiful! The way this book is written is almost as if it's a set of short stories that eventually intertwine. While the cast of characters are (often, but not always) the same from chapter to chapter, each chapter tells a new story from a new perspective. A stunning debut.

I don't even know where to start with this story. It's a story that spans from the 1700s all the way to the current 2000s. there was a lot to process as there was a lot going on in this story and so many different family members . However, given how involved and complex the story was it was actually very easy to follow along and I really enjoyed it.

Wow. Am intriguing, sad and infuriating family saga of Jamaican immigrants in the US. How the stories of the descendants were interwoven was lovely, however their stories definitely show how generational traumas are real.

What a complex story, unlike anything I have read before. Its different strands capture the very fractured lineage of many who originally called Jamaica their home. This is a tale of family lost and found, of historic racial divides, of families broken and trying to heal, of the impact of centuries of slavery in the Caribbean and of white male supremacy and its outcomes, including multitudes of children of rape.

The story moves back and forth in time from contemporary New York to early 19th century Jamaica, tracing relationships over those centuries, relationships that seemed to doom present-day youth to a life of limited identity and poor family relationships. Every adult appears to be hiding some facts about earlier family or to have been scarred into silence about the past. There is rebellion and rage and mental illness (or possible possession) as a result. Yes there are elements of magical presence in the story too.

This is a book that I’m glad I read for it’s a view and approach that is new and foreign to my experience. I recommend it to readers who would like the challenge of a new experience in both viewpoints and style but with a subject that is very much still current.

A copy of this book was provided by Simon & Schuster through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

WOW. I could not put this book down. I finished it over 2 days. I picked it up at the beginning of the week, read the first few pages, and realized that I could not read this during the work week haha. I took all Saturday and Sunday to bundle up with wine and these pages of past and present, in between Jamaica and New York. It was a wild ride.

I definitely appreciate the family tree in the beginning of the book! This story was authentic, amazing, and allowed everyone to speak. I love that you get a chapter/section from almost everyone’s point of view. Each character is different and connected on the same tree. Card made me think about my own family a lot, our greats and ghosts in-between.

I thought this was going to be a story about Abel and how his decisions created a negative domino effect on the women in his life. But it turned into a story about…everyone? I’m not too sure honestly. I love Card’s writing, the language and the time jumps were clear and did not take away from the story, but I needed a little more on the plot:
Did Vera get her revenge and cause Abel’s death?
Why did Estelle give Irene their father’s ashes instead of Ruthie?
Did Ruthie find out about Abel’s death? What happened to her?
Did Irene ever find peace? Was she turning into Vera?

I felt that their stories were not finished. I would have loved more chapters about them instead of their deep ancestral family history and how Debbie and the Paisley’s are connected at the root. Although it was interesting, it almost felt like I was reading another book. It was a prequel that’s connected, but completely separate (if that makes sense). Those chapters would have made a great separate section of the book. I was fascinated by the ancestor’s stories; but, I was confused on what it meant for the main plot. It might take me another read to bring everything altogether.

The last chapter was haunting and amazing and answered a couple questions for me. However, this could have been a separate short story. I did not see it as essential to the book as a whole.

Wrap-Up
Overall I loved this book. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a good read about family, ghost stories, secrets and trauma. This was a great debut Maisy! Please keep writing and creating!

I will be posting a short, more exciting version of this review on Instagram sometime this week.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3VSZPFX9P0DKC/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1982117435

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3156459305?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1


Thank you for the galley!

This book is difficult for me to review as I am rather torn. Ostensibly about a multigenerational Jamaican family across the centuries, underneath it is a story of our racial history, where each character fits, who benefits and who is to blame, how slavery from hundreds of years ago impacts generations today. In other words...it's complicated. A fantastic narrator on the audio tells the story of Stanford Solomon, an old Jamaican man in Brooklyn, yet in reality he is Abel, a man who left a young family on the island. The narration veers off quickly into other points of views and other time periods, creating some confusion from me, as I searched for connection. Admittedly, I almost stopped reading, yet I was glad I didn't, particularly when Deb came into the picture, Deb who his the descendant of the slave owners, Deb who embodies white privilege that comes through history and forces the reader to see, truly see, the impact from centuries ago. This book is an incredible learning experience, yet not the most gripping reading experience, if that makes sense.

Stanford Solomon leaves his family and life behind in Jamaica and starts a new life in England by faking his death and taking on the identity of Abel Paisley, a dead coworker. The effects of this decision are then seen through the lives of his family in this multi-generational drama.

I love historical fiction and after recently enjoying Patsy and Golden Boy I was looking forward to this historical fiction novel partly set in Jamaica.

Once the characters were set and I understood the timeline, this book took off for me and there were many parts that I couldn’t put down. I felt transported to the brutal days of colonial Jamaica and back to present day Harlem. I loved her writing and the variety of characters.

I’ve seen a some reviews mention that the writing style varies too much and suggest that the book is more a collection of short-stories. I can see that, but ultimately these variations helped keep my interest and I enjoyed how the chapters focused on the different characters. Though the ending read like a different book altogether and I kept expecting it to circle back and connect to some other part of the book. Overall the parts of this book that I enjoyed outweighed the few parts that felt more disjointed or unrelated to the rest of the book.

Let me preface this review with this statement: I do not generally enjoy books that have segments that read more like short stories. I cannot connect to the characters or the story. I always feel jipped and disconnected. That’s all on me, not this book. I can tell this book had great writing and layers, but I did not enjoy it. I always felt a bit lost and did not desire to pick it back up when I had set it down.

On the one hand, I enjoyed These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card. I liked the idea of the various timelines and characters intertwining, liked the scope of the story, liked the settings, liked the characters, etc. On the other hand, I really struggled keeping track of everything in These Ghosts are Family. It felt like Disappearing Earth in some ways, in that the plotlines were definitely alll connected, but it was difficult to keep track of who went where. I almost think I would've done super well creating the family tree myself as it went along, rather than waiting until almost the end to see it all laid out by one of the characters. The plot in this one was the definition of wander-y, which is not a word but fits how this plot felt for me. And yet, though it wandered, I somehow followed it and stayed interested, which perhaps reflects the experiences of the characters in 2020 attempting to trace their lineage with obscured, undocumented, or buried descriptions of their family members. I'm still working through this book mentally, but I think I liked it?

What just happened? This book is an amazing and worthwhile debut. It calls one to analyze the sacrifices we make when chasing happiness. It feels like a natural progression from other debuts I have read recently. Homegoing, A Kind of Freedom, And These Ghosts are Family belong in a gift set.

When I read the first page of These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, I was all in! I knew I was going to get a messy tale of family betrayal and lies. I got that and more, What happens instead is us readers getting all up in Abel’s family business, from way back in the day.

The quick rundown: These Ghosts Are Family introduces us to Stanford Solomon, a Jamaican man living in England. He has been hiding a terrible secret: He is really Abel Paisley, a man who is thought to be long dead by his family in Jamaica. Abel’s betrayal and lies changes the course of his children's lives. What is truly compelling is we readers go down the rabbit hole and find out much more about Abel and his family that demonstrates the circle of life, and how our ghosts from the past affect future generations. Thus, these ghosts are really family.

Although I enjoyed this story a great deal, there were some parts I skimmed because I became a bit bored. Those parts could’ve been condensed, but I get it. They’re necessary. Other than that, I am happy I was given the chance to read this book! I needed a change, something good to read, and this book was perfect. If you liked Homegoing or The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, read this!

I was given a ARC to read and review. Thank you, Netgalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for allowing me to read and review this book.