Ghosts: A novel

Dolly Alderton

Aug 2021 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Everything I Know About Love comes a smart, sexy, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy about ex-boyfriends, imperfect parents, friends with kids, and a man who disappears the moment he says "I love you."

“An absolute knock-out. Wickedly funny and, at turns, both cynical and sincere… feels like your very favorite friend.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, VOGUE, PEOPLE

Nina Dean is not especially bothered that she's single. She owns her own apartment, she's about to publish her second book, she has a great relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and enough friends to keep her social calendar full and her hangovers plentiful. And when she downloads a dating app, she does the seemingly impossible: She meets a great guy on her first date. Max is handsome and built like a lumberjack; he has floppy blond hair and a stable job. But more surprising than anything else, Nina and Max have chemistry. Their conversations are witty and ironic, they both hate sports, they dance together like fools, they happily dig deep into the nuances of crappy music, and they create an entire universe of private jokes and chemical bliss.

But when Max ghosts her, Nina is forced to deal with everything she's been trying so hard to ignore: her father's dementia is getting worse, and so is her mother's denial of it; her editor hates her new book idea; and her best friend from childhood is icing her out. Funny, tender, and eminently, movingly relatable, Ghosts is a whip-smart tale of relationships and modern life.

Ratings and reviews

I received a free electronic ARC of this especially funny tale from Netgalley, Dolly Alderton, and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read Ghosts of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Nina George Dean is approaching her 32nd birthday, feeling isolated and slightly hostile toward her aging parents, and single with no prospect of that changing. She is blessed with good friends including an ex-boyfriend, loves her job as a freelance journalist, and hasn't met any new men in way too long. Against her better judgement, she signs in to a dating app on her phone. And despite all those horror tales and ghost stories about online dating sites, she meets Max, an exceptionally perfect man. Maybe. Or not. This work is a hoot. I found myself wishing I had had Nina's sense when I was 32 and understood without prejudice her predicament. Sometimes, a good man is just impossible to find. And sometimes being free and single is a great blessing. Or at least it appears that way.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it will probably be my last. This book just missed the mark for me. If you’re looking to read a book that will make you laugh, I expect to laugh, at least once. I didn’t care for the characters either. Max just seems like a guy that wants to make you fall for him and then it’s time to disappear. He did this not once, but twice. Nina, on the other hand, let him do it. Sorry, but this just wasn’t the book for me. I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

There's a lot going on in this story. It was a struggle for me to finish because it jumped all over the place and the many themes offered didn't seem to have resolutions just an oh by the way let me mention this. I just couldn't define structure neither a purpose to connect to. I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to read and leave a review.

About the author

DOLLY ALDERTON is an award-winning author and journalist based in London. She is a columnist for The Sunday Times Style and has also written for GQ, Red, Marie Claire and Grazia. She is the former cohost and cocreator of the weekly pop-culture and current affairs podcast The High Low. Her first book, Everything I Know About Love, became a top-five Sunday Times best seller in its first week of publication and won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year. Ghosts is her first novel.