Ghosts by Dolly Alderton was an absolute delight! To be sure, there are themes that are heavy: aging parents, Alzheimer’s, strained relationships with friends as we age, and the obviously maddening act of ‘ghosting’ which gives the novel its title. Yet the tone is cheeky and optimistic, reminding me of reading Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones, Jojo Moyes contemporary novels, Marian Keyes, and most recently Caroline O’Donaghue’s The Rachel Incident.
I feel as if a lot of contemporary “coming of age” books about young millennial women get lumped into reviews that make them sound cumbersome and introspective. That is absolutely not the case. If you are hesitant about this book because (like me) you are not millennial, not on the dating scene, not at all versed in online dating, or think it is a bunch of navel gazing, think again. Ghosts is thought provoking, heartwarming, funny, and filled with characters that leap off the page. Recommend!

“But underneath this diamond of solitude was a sharp point that I occasionally caught with my bare hands, making it feel like a perilous asset rather than a precious one. Perhaps this jagged underside was essential—what made the surface of my aloneness shine so bright. But loneliness, once just sad, had recently started to feel frightening.”