This book was not what I expected.  I will not publicly post a review.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

Definitely enjoyed this one! Such an interesting concept and the writing was well done. I'll be looking for more from this author. I'm truly glad to have read this one!

What an incredible novel. I love how she progresses through her acceptance of death. Its interesting how they try so hard to hang-on to each other, the life they once had. It really makes one ponder, if we could be with our loved ones forever without moving on would we? What all would we be forfeiting in order to do so? 
Highly recommended!

3.5 ***
I liked the concept of this book and would probably give it more stars, but I felt like the description didn't correlate to what was written. It threw me off. I kept waiting for it to be different. That would have been my only major con. Maybe that's not a reason to take away stars, especially since if I had gone in blindly I may not have, but since I didn't, again just kept waiting for more. 

PRO: I really liked the characters. The story had one purpose and I thought explored what the characters needed/wanted for that one purpose. I really liked that because everything throughout the story had meaning and was interesting. I wanted to keep going to find out more and learn more about their relationships, and I learned just enough to be invested. At the end, I felt like I knew exactly what had happened within that story and was not left wondering about what else or feeling overwhelmed with to much info. 

Overall, I enjoyed that it was short, quick and a good story with good characters. I really enjoyed that it had a clear focus (beginning, middle, end). 

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Canada for the ARC.

I found this book a little tedious to read. The character is hard to connect with until about mid-way through the book as she fades in and out a lot. I wish I had more insight from the husband's perspective and could have looked at the years that have passed through his eyes.

This was such a potent and utterly engaging novel -- a reverie of acute loneliness that was disquieting and felt so apt for these housebound times. It resonated and in spirit, somewhat reminded me of Lily Tuck's gorgeous and poignant novella I MARRIED YOU FOR HAPPENING. But also lovely for those who loved the movie TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY. Delighted to also include it in Read & Recommended in Zoomer magazine's digital books section.

This is a quick little book coming in at 190 pages.

It’s hard to put into words my thoughts on this one. It’s a unique story, funny at times but also sad. Faye seemed a little confused in the beginning, kinda like myself but it didn’t take long to grasp the storyline and feel her wide range of emotions. That being said I think another 50 pages or so would have been great to get a good handle on the situation, even to hear from Alex would have been a welcome addition, though I understand the direction the author was going for - which was to get Faye's perspective.

This is my first time reading Canadian author Sara O’Leary and I’ll be in the lookout for more.

This book is part of my 2020 Reading off my Shelf challenge

It is difficult to fit The Ghost in the House by Sara O’Leary into one particular genre. This is the story of Fay. Her life is where she always hoped it would be: her husband is the love of her life, her house is the home of her dreams, her career is very satisfying. Until, without knowing why, she realizes that everything in her life has changed. A teenager is living in her house, her husband is married to an unknown woman, her house has been re-decorated and so on. What could have gone wrong? Who are these people? What happened to her picture-perfect life? Why did her husband abandon her? This is a beautiful novel well-worth spending time with. Highly recommended. Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an absolute gem of a read. Drawn in quickly, and read in one sitting, this is captivating writing.

The author Sara O'Leary has created an elegant yet bittersweet story of love; first loves, true loves and yearnings for love.

The story unfolds with haunting clarity as the main character comes to understand her place in the household. One house alive with memories both good and bad, where the rooms wait in hushed silences for new memories to be made.

If you believe in "Until death do us part" then this is your next read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday Canada and the author, Ms. Sara O'Leary, for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "The Ghodt in the House". The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone.

At the outset, I was not really sure what was happening to Faye, She "wakes up" in her house, but somehow the decor seems to have changed overnight, where there used to be colour, everything appears muted. Her husband Alec is living in the house, but now, there is a child in the house, (she had no children), and, there is ANOTHER woman in her beloved house. Gradually, Fay begins to realize that somehow, she has fallen out of the picture. What is she now? Is she a ghost? Who could see her? Where do ghosts get to "live" (or die) ? Is Fay forgotten by her beloved husband?

This is what The Ghost in the House is about. It is the debut adult novel by Canadian author Sara O'leary. O'leary is  well established in the world of (children"s) picture books. When I googled her I found #whereissaidie, a collaboration she did, with an adorable and catchy musical video. I was surprised to read she lives in Montreal and teaches at Concordia (not completely surprised, because she moves from Montreal to Vancouver in the book ...). 

This is a literary fiction, and O'leary draws inspiration from authors such as,  Daphne de Maurier and her book Rebecca, (a ghost occupying her own house), as well as from Jenny Offil"s  Department of Speculation, and  others. 

Overall I enjoyed reading #theghostinthehouse, (what footprint do we leave in the world after we die?). Thank you @netgalley and @doubledaycanada for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Doubleday Canada, Penguin Random House Canada Limited, and NetGalley for a temporary digital ARC of The Ghost in the House by Sara O'Leary, which enabled me to read it and write an unbiased review. The thoughts expressed here are my own. 

The intriguing story in this short book is told from the ghost's point of view. 
Fay had a great life living in her dream house with her loving husband  and planning her career as an artist. But something went awry. 
This is not a scary ghost story, but a 
heartbreaking story of love, loss, grief, regrets, and letting go. The unexpected humour was appreciated. 
This is my first book written by Sara O'Leary, and I hope to read more by this talented Canadian author. 

Content Warning: Self-harm/cutting

#TheGhostInTheHouse
#NetGalley

Posted on GoodReads, NetGalley, Savvy Reader and Twitter

Speculative Fiction | Adult
I’ll just open by saying this is the best book I’ve read this year. I absolutely loved it! Fay wakes up one day to find someone else living in her house – a strange woman, and a girl she thinks may be a ghost. Then she realizes her husband is living there still, apparently with a new family. Slowly she comes to the understanding that the girl is real, and it is she, Fay, who is the ghost. As she ponders how this happened, and what she is doing in the house, she watches with a wistful heart as life continues without her. She also comes to realize how happy she was, or perhaps how happy she should have been, living in the house of her dreams, with a man she loves and who loves her, trying to launch her career as an artist, whatever that looked like at the time. This is O’Leary’s first adult novel (she is internationally well regarded as an author of picture books), and she has created an unforgettable character in Fay.
Without giving away too much, I thoroughly enjoyed Fay as a spirit character – she is loving, spiteful, childish, wise, thoughtful, impetuous, and both funny and articulate as she captures perfectly the “in your head” narratives we all have. It’s a tender and sad story – Fay died unexpectedly, after all, and at a young age – but it’s also funny, moving, and affecting, in that it’s affected me and how I view my wonderful little world, lingering long after it’s finished. My thanks to Doubleday Canada for the digital reading copy provided temporarily through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35732261

Exciting, thrilling, and unexpected. Sara O'Leary captured me into the story with her exquisite writing style.

The Ghost In The House, by Sara O'Leary, is a very moving story!
Fay's life is perfect. She is married to the man she loves, lives in her dream home and is planning her career as an artist. Then something goes wrong. Everything has changed. Everything has ended except for how she feels.
Not a scary ghost story, but a story of love, loss, grief and acceptance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada/Doubleday Canada for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

It's hard to write a review when you don't really know how you feel about a book or when struggle to recall enough specifics about it. What this means is that well the book was decently done, with an intriguing enough premise to get me to start to read it, it didn't really make much of an impact. 

I don't know if that was because it was shorter than what I normally read, or because I felt like it didn't really get below the surface? 

What I do know is that after I went back and reread parts of it so I could have enough of a frame of reference to write this, is that I was disappointed. I wanted to feel a bit more for Fay, to understand her emotions in more depth. I wanted to struggle with her emotions along side her, not simply notate that she was feeling something and move on.

This was disorienting in the beginning. I think it was meant to be that way, but it was hard to get through the first bit. I wasn't sure what was going on and some of the things Fay said were hard to make sense of. Sometimes it was hard to differentiate what really happened from her wistful "what could have been" thoughts. This was only in the beginning though. Things started to take form when she met Dee. 
The story improved and I had a hard time figuring out how to feel. I understood her frustration at seeing her husband with another family, I understood her husbands need to move on, and I felt bad for Janet who just had no idea what was going on and didn't deserve the confusion. Death is hard. And our lack of understanding of the afterlife makes it so much harder to process. No one had it easy. 
3/5 stars

This book is so well written.  I was captivated from the beginning.  Plot is well developed and emotions are at the surface throughout until the very end.

Absolutely loved this piece.  

Thank you!

I had tried to download a copy of this book to read but I could not get it to open with any of my reading apps. I then found it as an audiobook and listened to it.  I will start by saying I did not care for the narrator so I believe this may skew my thoughts.  I thought the plot of the book was wonderful and it started in a way I expected but then it seemed to drag in the middle before getting quite good at the end. It is one of those books that the last chapter brings it all together for you and suddenly it all makes sense.  I am goi h to find a hard copy of this book to read as I believe that will make a difference in my reviews.

Engaging, compelling & unputdownable!

I absolutely could not put this book down and read it in one sitting. There is some dark humour here but a story that is so touchingly profound. I don’t think I will ever forget this story!

Thanks so much for the opportunity to read an ARC.

If anyone you have deeply loved has died this book may resonate.  The idea of what happens after death and whether or not the dead can visit us are questions most of us have asked at one time or another.  After my mother died aged 59, I would have given anything to have her 'visit' me especially to see my children - both born after her death, but as Sara O'Leary's novel shows such 'visits' are, at the very least problematic for the living and the dead.

I really wanted to like this novel especially as I have often, as mentioned, pondered on the themes in it, but the best I can say is that it is 'nice'.  It didn't go far enough for me.  Why, several years after her death, the MC returns to the earthly world is never properly resolved nor is there a sense that she has contributed to or received any great wisdom by doing so.  I finished the novel wanting more.  I even wondered in the last few pages whether there would be a huge 'Bobby Ewing a la Dallas' (ages me) plot twist at the end, but there wasn't.

The description of grief was solid.  The aching hole you carry around, sometimes for years, is clearly articulated, but beyond that I felt a bit dissatisfied with the whole experience.