Still catching up on my October reads book reviews. I truly loved Clay McLeod Chapman’s novel, Whisper Down the Lane so I was terribly excited to read his newest one, Ghost Eaters.

I can’t make up my mind about this book. The beginning really hooked me and I was absolutely loving it and I thought the premise was extremely creative and I wanted to see where it would go. Unfortunately, the style of writing changed abruptly about midway through and I found it very disconcerting. I realize Chapman was wanting the reader to be experiencing the events through the eyes and emotions of someone in the thrall of drugs and addiction but I felt it really detracted from the story. It mad me feel uncomfortable and disoriented and perhaps that was the point, but I did not enjoy it.

I do think the ending wrapped up nicely and I finally experienced all the thrills and terror I had been hoping for all along. Even though this one was a mixed bag for me, I still think Chapman is one of the most interesting and talented horror writers around and I will eagerly anticipate his next book. Thank you to @netgalley and @quirkbooks for an arc of this book.

When Erins best friend/highschool boyfriend shows up high and asks her to bail him out from jail, she has had enough, and cuts him off. But when he turns up dead from an overdose just days after his release from rehab, Erins world just falls apart. Hoe is she supposed to live without him?
Until a friend tells her about this new drug, named Ghost, that makes you -haunted- see the dead. Erin is grieving her lost love and doesnt think twicebefore taking the pill, hoping to see him one last time.
But the drug has unfathomable side effects—and once you take it, you can never go back.

"We carry these ghosts with us, whereverwe go. By giving them a house to haunt, we know where they'll be. We can always visit. All it takes is a key. That's what I'm offering. "

This is a grief horror with a dash of the supernatural and the horrors of drug addiction masterfully wowen in to the story. The first half of the book was really slow for me, but it really started to pick up with the creepiness and ghosts after a while. The scene with Erin and the ghosts at her office was just so creepy! I didn't expect the level of creepiness that from this book.

"There's a figure partially eclipsed by the water cooler. What's left of his clothes seem baked into his body. I can make out his mottled flesh from where I'm sitting. " "A coworker leans over to refill his water bottle, inches away from the mans crisped skin, charred bones piercing throught his chest. He just cant see."

I haven't read anything from this author before but I've seen this book everywhere lately so I was excited when I got approved for an eARC of this! This is unlike any book I've ever read before but I really loved it, the writing is impeccable, and he does an amazing job at describing the scenes, I had no problem immersing myself into the story. I also liked the characters, Erin as the main character struggles with the loss of her dead boyfriend and best friend and on top of that has to handle the demons of drug addiction, abusive and toxic relationships and literal ghosts. It is written in a way that perfectly captures the broken mind of someone who is falling apart by grief and addiction. This makes it easy to connect with her, and feel her sadness and horror. And also Lonnie, I love him but he is also so fxing creepy!

And also, the cover is stunning! This gets a 4,5 stars from me!

Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this arc! This review will be published on NetGalley, Amazon, GoodReads and instagram.com/jodinelinnea

I liked the plot and Chapman is great with descriptions and painting the scene. I struggled to connect with the cast of characters, not one seemed to have redeemable qualities.

I was hopeful for Erin to be a hero, she kept tricking me by acknowledging how she wanted to start her life, start a career, cut ties with her toxic friends and then would make every decision to do the OPPOSITE of what she *wanted* to do. The one day she was "haunted" while at work + her parents dinner party + Amara's going away party = Erin swearing to herself "I'm never doing that again!" and then she immediately dives head first into full-blown destroying her life.

Understanding this book is probably more about addiction and it's hold than it is about a paranormal story I'm cutting a lot of slack for how the storyline kept jerking me all over the place.

Also I felt there was a missed opportunity with the historical ghosts around her city. For how knowledgeable she was about the history/tragedies/massacres of her town I felt that could have been a huge storyline. It would have been a lot more interesting than her spiraling out in Toby's "haunted house" for half of the book.

Clay McLeod Chapman’s name is one I’ve heard mentioned often in discussions about up-and-coming horror authors that seem to bounce around social media and horror-based websites, yet I'd never read anything by him prior to this novel. Accordingly, I wanted to get my hands on a copy of this to see what the buzz around him was and is all about. I was not disappointed at all—Ghost Eaters is a haunting examination of addiction, blind loyalty, abusive relationships, and dealing with historical trauma in the context of present-day America, and it's all bundled neatly into a distinctly twenty-first century ghost story.

The story is simple on the surface—we follow a group of college-aged friends who are dysfunctional in every sense of the term (sleeping with one another and then regretting it; constantly doing drugs together; trespassing in cemeteries for the thrill of it; manipulating others to go against their best interest for selfish needs, etc.), and readers learn the place of each individual friend very quickly. There’s Silas, the undisputed leader of the group and master manipulator, and the three others, who are essentially his blind followers, bending to his every whim.

We focus on one of the three followers, Erin, throughout the novel, and we soon transition into post-college adulthood with the friend group after an enthralling prologue, one that’s set in a cemetery and features breaking into a crypt, tombstone-set sex, and heavy drug use (in other words, the perfect kind of horror mixture). Over the course of the first third of the novel, we learn where the four friends end up during the first few years out of college, and it reads like a typical millennial set-up—none of them seem happy with their jobs, some of them are still being supported by their their parents, and one of them is spiraling in a world saturated with hard drugs and alcohol. We see that Silas seems to have gone even further down the addiction pathway than when he was in college, including to the point where he’s homeless in the present day of the novel, and we watch as he seduces Erin into giving him a place to stay after he's evicted from his apartment due to drug-related issues. Soon enough, Silas succumbs to his addictions, and he passes from our world to the next--and, that’s when the novel really gets going.

From there, it’s a deeper dive into Erin’s personal world, and we watch as she starts to succumb to the same issues that plagued Silas in the last days and weeks of his life. The novel becomes extremely dark, both literally and metaphorically, very quickly, and we watch as Erin’s life crumbles to pieces, her sense of reality unclear at times and fogged with the haze of madness that comes from consuming a new drug that Silas had found prior to his death. But that’s the catcher—it’s not just any kind of drug, one that gives you a high and then leaves you out to dry. No, this drug is something else entirely—it allows you to see ghosts, and not just the ones that you want to see, but every ghost lurking nearby. Erin soon learns that Richmond, Virginia, the primary setting for the novel, is full of many angry, vengeful spirits, and she starts to slowly lose her mind as she battles both the spirit of Silas and her inner demons, struggling to right the ship of her life and stop the downward slide her path has set her on.

The plot of the book is highly entertaining, and it kept me engaged the entire time. The story was clear, easy to follow, and packed full of moments and imagery that were genuinely creepy and unnerving. I’m one of those people who gobble up horror fiction but who also aren’t that scared by most of it, but there were scenes in this that gave me genuine goosebumps, which I attribute solely to Chapman’s stellar prose and descriptive abilities.

That leads me to the real highlight of the novel—Chapman’s characterizations of the four main friends seem so real and fully-formed that, even if I found every single one of them despicable for varying reasons, I still wanted to read on and know what ended up happening to them. Erin is the stereotypical white millennial twentysomething, living off her parents’ money and only getting a well-paying job because of Daddy’s connections, and Silas is the typical burnout. The other two friends fall into rather cliched roles (one of them ‘just wants to get out and make something of herself’ in New York City, and the other one is blindly devoted to Silas even after his death while working a menial full-time job to pay the rent and nothing else), but Chapman somehow makes us feel connected to them in such ways that we care about what their trials and tribulations. Even if I thought Erin was a selfish, repulsive character throughout most of the novel, she still had depth to her and a well-roundedness that so many other horror anti-heroes seem to miss, and I never once was bored following her journey. We see her struggle with the fact that she knows she needs to flush Silas and his influence out of her system, and the very fact that she can’t do so makes her all the more real.

Chapman’s exploration of Richmond and its historical roots, both pre- and post-Civil War, add even more depth to this story that I think a lot of novels in the Southern Gothic subgenre miss entirely, and it helps elevate it to an entirely different level. Instead of just bombarding us with information about Richmond and all of its historical atrocities (Chapman touches on Native American displacement and genocide at the hands of White Europeans, slavery, corrupt business owners, etc.), he finds way to weave the stories and individual histories into the action of the story itself. For example, in one scene, we see Erin arrive for her first day of work at her new job. Unbeknownst to her, the building sits on the site of a factory that burned down with many blue-collar workers stuck inside it, and their spirits now roam the building seeking some kind of vengeance, a form that’s virtually impossible because of their invisibleness to the material world. Silas’ drug gives Erin the ability to see them, even if it’s the last thing she wants, and we learn about the tragedy accordingly as they haunt and assault her. A version of ‘show not tell,’ Chapman includes these kinds of historical examinations throughout the entire story that adds a richness to it to such a degree that Richmond itself seems to become a character.

One last thing—Ghost Eaters fits neatly into the fungal-horror subgenre, and it explores tropes of the subgenre much better than even a heavy hitter like Mexican Gothic does. I won’t say anymore at risk of spoiling some of the plot, but if you’re into this subgenre, know that you’re in for a treat with this one.

Overall, Ghost Eaters is a tremendous novel, and I tore through it in two sittings over the course of two days. The plotting is perfectly paced, the characters are three-dimensional, and the explorations of addiction and how individuals struggle to wash their systems of toxicity, both emotionally- and physically-based versions, is next to none. Chapman has created one of the best horror novels of the last few years with Ghost Eaters, and he’s now become an automatic-buy author for me whenever his next book comes out.

Thanks to NetGalley, Quirk Books, and Clay McLeod Chapman for the digital ARC of Ghost Eaters in exchange for an honest review.

This one was definitely a great read to include in my spooky season TBR - it was haunting, descriptively gory in some parts and explored some social elements which I always love in horror.

Overall I enjoyed this one but it was a rather middle of the road read. A few parts had me in a choke hold where I could not stop reading, but the rest of it was just okay for me. Somewhat frustrating to have a main character who repeatedly makes the same bad decision while saying she doesn’t want to do that exact thing, so that got a little old.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Quirk Books for my copy in exchange for a review!

An original ghost story. TW addiction, overdose. Finished this book in one sitting which always shows how much you enjoyed a book

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an advance readers copy in return for an honest review.

Description: Ever since their on-again, off-again college romance, Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with charismatic but reckless Silas, who’s been chasing the next big high since graduation. When he texts her to spring him out of rehab, she knows enough is enough. She’s ready to start a career, make new friends, and meet a great guy—even if that means cutting Silas off. But when Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart.

When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past everywhere. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she’s opened?

With propulsive momentum, bone-chilling scares, and dark meditations on the weight of history, this Southern horror will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.

Definitely worth recommending to your favorite readers of horror/supernatural/spooky tales, I always love to read Clay McLeod Chapman's books and this was no exception. The ending lost a little momentum for me....or it would have been a 5 star review. This one was 4.5 for me!

Low brow American schlock that tries to be way cooler and trendier than it is. Almost read like it was self published. Sorry not for me.

I seen an article about "Ghost Eaters" in the current Book Page and I just knew I had to read it. It did not disappoint!

I was so excited for this book The premise was intriguing and unique: take a drug, see a ghost. The more I read, the more disappointing the story became. I didn't connect with the characters and I just wanted Erin to do better.

This truly complex novel was both hard to read and also felt like a breath of fresh air. Go into this one with nuance, and enjoy.

I was really looking forward to this book based on the title, cover and description. However after picking it up, I realized it just wasn’t the book for me. However, I do feel like it will be well loved by fans of the horror genre.

Thank you to Quirk books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think it worked for me, really. It was too much about drugs and loneliness to the point where I don't think the main character's motivations made sense to me in the end. I didn't like any of the people around her and I didn't really like her, either. I think that it was an interesting concept but I don't like how disjointed the narrative was and a lof of the using scenes were too long.

3 stars.

This was such a strong five star read for me! The writing was gripping and fast paced. It takes the classic ghost/haunting story and turns it for an awesome twist.
The body horror and grief horror intertwine for a deliciously dark journey.
It was both horrifying and thought provoking. I especially loved the elements of mycology that add that extra little layer to the entire thing. This one became a new favorite!

Erin has never been able to say no, or set a single boundary with her on-again-off-again boyfriend Silas. Now that college is over, and life in the "real world" is looming,, Silas is flitting in and out of rehab, only staying for short amounts of time before he calls Erin and has her come rescue him. But Erin is determined to make a clean break - new job, new relationship, and so she starts ignoring Silas's calls, When Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart, and she blames herself for what happened to him. Unable to get over his death, she will do anything to see him one more time. When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past everywhere. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she’s opened?
First, let me say that I have never read anything by this author, so I didn't have anything to compare it to in regards to their other works. That being said, there were things I loved about the book and things that, well, not so much. I loved the horror aspect of it. The ghost scenes were truly gruesome, and for me, that was what made the book enjoyable. As for what I didn't really care for - I didn't particularly like or feel an emotional connection to any of the characters, and then there was the excessive drug use. I know the book was about a drug that would allow people to see the dead, but I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be something where everyone stayed stoned out of their minds all of the time. I was expecting a little more horror and a little less of the other. So, if you read it, just adjust your expectations. Overall, I am glad I read it, and it was a good kick-off for Halloween.

Wow, this book gutted me. Clay McLeod Chapman's writing is visceral and affecting-- he uses horror to tell a moving tale about loss, addiction, and growing up and away from college friends. Immersive and paradigm-shifting.

The nitty-gritty: A group of friends discover the mysteries and dangers of ghosts and hauntings in this creepy, disturbing tale.

“You wanna get haunted?” A seemingly innocent question opens up all sorts of terrifying possibilities in Clay McLeod Chapman’s latest, a weird and wonderful combination of drugs, mushrooms and ghosts that just keeps getting stranger and stranger the more you read. Chapman takes the tried and true haunted house trope and turns it on its head. In this story, a drug called Ghost not only takes you on a hallucinogenic trip, but allows you to see ghosts. And in this case, the “house” that’s haunted isn’t just the type with four walls and a roof, although part of the story takes place in an abandoned house. I had so many WTF moments while reading this, and readers who aren’t into “weird” might struggle with this one, but I appreciate well written books that lean towards weird and this was a good one.

Erin, Silas, Tobias and Amara are post-college graduate friends, living in the historical city of Richmond, Virginia. Silas has always struggled with drug addiction, and Erin has always been there to pick up the pieces whenever he spirals out of control, but Erin has had enough. Silas hints to the others that he has a secret, a new drug that will change everything, and he tells Erin “You can’t see them yet, but you will.” But before he can explain that cryptic statement, Silas is found dead of an overdose. 

But there’s no time to grieve, as Tobias explains that he and Silas were testing a new drug before he died, a drug that can make you see ghosts. Tobias convinces the others to come with him to an abandoned house and take Ghost so that they can communicate with Silas. But Tobias isn’t telling them everything. He has a plan for Ghost, and he wants Erin and Amara to help him. And as it turns out, that means staying in the house—for good.

Chapman tells his story from Erin’s point of view, so the whole thing feels very focused and intense. Erin is meant to be the most level-headed one of the group, but that’s not saying much since all of the characters are pretty messed up. Like the others, Erin is floundering, trying to find her place in life, looking for meaningful relationships and especially grieving the loss of her friend Silas. She carries a Sharpie with her wherever she goes and writes “Erin is here” on walls all over the city, as if she’s trying to establish her identity. There’s a lot of soul searching going on, and when Erin gets the chance to connect with Silas after he dies, she throws herself into the task without really thinking things through. It’s only after she realizes Tobias is trying to trap her that she panics and tries to escape.

I thought the setting of Richmond, Virginia was perfect for a ghost story. Chapman drops in facts about the city’s rich history as the characters visit their favorite hangouts, like a bar that used to be an antebellum house, or an old building where hundreds of people died in a factory fire. One of the characters says “The whole city’s a graveyard,” and that’s exactly what Erin experiences once she takes her first dose of Ghost. It reminded me a lot of The Sixth Sense, which takes place in a different historical city but uses a similar idea. (Also, I couldn’t help but remember that movie’s iconic phrase “I see dead people” as I was reading.)

But my favorite part of the story was the idea that people are haunted, not houses. Chapman uses both the literal meaning of the word and “haunted” as a metaphor, and he also plays around with the word “ghost,” sometimes using his title chapters to show its multiple meanings  (like the phrase “giving up the ghost”). I thought it was cleverly done and added a nice touch.

The story is a little convoluted and manic at times, jumping from one idea to the next, but for me it mimicked the feeling of being high on hallucinogens (or what I imagine that must feel like as I’ve never indulged myself), the idea of not being able to tell what’s real or imagined. There’s one scene in the house after Erin’s taken Ghost where she finds herself living a different life, a life that she and Silas could have had together, although it turns out to be a nightmarish version. Was she actually there with Silas’s ghost? Or was the whole thing just a dream? The author writes that scene as if it could go either way, and I loved the ambiguity of not really knowing for sure what was happening.

There’s a cool and very disturbing twist in the second half that I’ll admit I saw coming, but it didn’t make it any less gross or upsetting. If there’s ever anything that would put me off doing drugs, it’s this book, lol. There are no benevolent spirits in Ghost Eaters, only hungry ghosts who won’t leave you alone. The last section takes an even darker turn, as things quickly become deadly in Tobias’s abandoned house. Some people might find the ending over-the-top, but I loved every bit of it. You don’t need a pill to see ghosts, just crack open Ghost Eaters and get haunted for yourself.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

One of the best books I've read all year. This book will literally haunt me forever. I will be raving about it until I die ... getting the picture yet 🤣 but seriously I'll be looking at getting myself a hard copy and giving it prime position on my bookshelf.

Ghost Easters is basically about a group of satanic, ghost conjuring people tripping on mushrooms while they try to reconnec with their deceased loved ones. Now that's the very basic synopsis. The real horror in this story comes from the wall crawling baby (iykyk 🤣) but it really stems from the idea of addiction and how it takes a hold of you. Ghost Eaters delves into the horror that is addiction and grief and the loss of loved ones. There is body horror mixed with supernatural elements and it works to elevate the theme of truly how horrifying addiction can be.

My review really doesn't justify how good this book is. I highly recommend picking this one up for spooky season!

This book was a little bit Train-Spotting and a little bit ago Ask Alice. Erin is trying to get her life together, but when her friend (and ex-boyfriend), Silas, dies because of an overdose, she doesn’t feel like she can move on. When their mutual friend says he see his spirit and speak with him again, she’s too curious to turn down the offer, but she’s quickly pulled into a nightmare.

There were some legitimately horrifying scenes in Ghost Eaters, but there was just something lacking for me. The book combined the themes of addiction and generational trauma in an effective way, but the characters weren’t as compelling as they could have been. It wasn’t my cup of tea. I think other fans of the horror genre will enjoy it, though.

It seems silly to me not to start this review without telling you that this novel is incredibly divisive. The Ghost Eaters is going to be a book you (probably) will either love or hate, and I think that makes the story even more interesting. Eaters intelligently captures addiction and trauma; You become obsessed with the escape. It’s the ability to feel less or to stave those heavier feelings off for as long as possible. Any amount of comfort, in whatever form, is better than desolation, right?

The Ghost Eaters is my first Chapman book, but it’ll by no means be my last. His writing is engaging and conveys the story in such an interesting way. I’m just sad I didn’t read it sooner, though it was an excellent start to the whole spooky season reading extravaganza.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Quirk Books, and Clay McLeod Chapman for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!