I found the concept very interesting but the plot dragged, I had a hard time finishing the book and the ending while well written didn’t appeal to me.

I thought this sounded like it would be a good one for me, but I found that it was really hard for me to get into the story and to finish the book.

This is one of those books that just seemed disjointed to me. It was hard for me to follow the story and I just didn't enjoy it.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!

A young woman's obsession with finding her sister's killer leads her to Carl, a photographer in a half-way house. Pretending to be his daughter, the two go on a journey to see if she can get Carl to confess.
I liked this even though there really isn't a whole lot of action, it's more of a character study to me. A couple of twists helps keep the pages turning. Absolutely great cover got me to pick this up!


**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.**

I really loved Black-Eyed Susans so I couldn’t wait to read Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin.

The story begins promising enough with a section titled: Before. Grace, one of the main characters, is talking about a time when her sister was twelve and she fell into a grave. Grace looks back on that day and think that’s the day that her sister was cursed. Because Grace's sister, Rachel, disappeared when she was nineteen.

In the next chapter we meet Carl. Carl is a photographer in a halfway house with dementia. Grace has come to find Carl because of an old photograph she found that Carl took of two mysterious girls. Grace suspects that Carl killed her sister along with other girls that he photographed. Her plan is to pose as his daughter and take him out of the halfway house on a road trip to the locations of some of the girls that he photographed.

So, they set off on the road trip. Here you have to suspend some belief: that the halfway house just let her take him and that she wanted to take him (even though she thinks a serial killer.) They set off to these locations, with Carl basically calling the shots.

From there on it’s a game of cat and mouse. Grace is a personal safety trainer and can take care of herself, however she is up against Carl, who is very conniving and may or may not be telling the truth.

I enjoyed the book, it was more of a psychological thriller.

I received an ARC of the book.

Grace is convinced that Carl Feldman killed her sister Rachel. The once celebrated photographer was tried for the murder of a young woman and acquitted; now he is very elderly, and residing in assisted living due to dementia. Grace poses as his daughter, and she wants to take him on a road trip.

My thanks go to Ballantine Books and Net Galley for the invitation to read and review. This book is now for sale.

The outset feels delightfully creepy, as in small bits and pieces Grace tells us what she knows and what she wonders about. We don’t know where she plans to take him, or what she intends to do with him, only that she isn’t who she claims to be and her intentions aren’t what she says they are.

The story is uneven in its quality. The first half is superior to the second half; at first I can buy the premise, which is full of holes—why would they release him to her? How could someone her age have enough money to do this, even with saving every penny she’s earned? How is she so careless with his meds, and how can he suddenly behave as if he is much younger and more vigorous than he has been for years? –but as the story continues, I find myself stopping now and then and rolling my eyes. I put it down, then come back to it, and the same thing happens. By the time I reach the ending, which feels cobbled together and not authentic at all, I am ready to be done.

Fans of Heaberlin’s may enjoy this book, but my advice is to wait till you can get it free or cheaply.

Grace was twelve when her sister went missing and was never found.  This loss has obsessed her ever since. She is certain that Carl is guilty of abducting her sister.  He was tried and acquitted of abducting and murdering another girl but was not charged in the case of Grace’s sister Rachel.  Now Carl is an old man suffering from dementia and living in a group home. Grace decides to pretend to be his daughter in order to break him out and take a road trip with him designed to jog his memory.

As usual, Heaberlin’s writing style is excellent.  She knows how to tell a story that both keeps you reading but also gets under your skin.  After finishing one of her novels, I find myself thinking about them for days after. The premise of this story is unique and the characters are interesting.  Grace is quirky and Carl is an enigma. Is he truly suffering from dementia or is he pretending? Dark humor lightens what could be an overly dark story.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

When I finished this novel, I had to tell myself to take a breath because I had been holding it for the final few chapters. The suspense in this novel built slowly until it is pounding its way to a stunning finale.

Grace is an anxiety-ridden young woman. Understandable since her older sister Rachel disappeared when Grace was twelve. Grace has always been fearful, however, and Rachel’s disappearance spins Grace’s obsessive behavior to a higher level.

She has lasered in on one man, photographer Carl Feldman. Grace suspects that Carl is a serial killer even though he was never convicted in any of the disappearances of several young women. The biggest roadblock to Grace’s investigation into Carl and her sister’s disappearance is that Carl’s suffering from dementia.

As Grace and Carl drive across Texas and visit the sites of the possible crime scenes, Grace wonders if Carl is actually a dementia patient or a diabolically clever killer who is weaving a trap for her that will ultimately lead to her death.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and read it in one evening. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy suspense.

The premise of this book was very intriguing. It reminded me a little of criminal minds and cold case with a hint of retribution. We follow our main character, who has many names and aliases as she takes a road trip with a suspected serial killer with dementia. She is trying to get closure for the death of her sister from a man she can't trust or figure out. I liked it and the set up was nice but than about a third of the way in it became slow moving and monotonous. The ending also left me unsatisfied with how things turned out. I did think the epilogue could be a start of an interesting series. Overall, it was a nice change of pace.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyable story. Heaberlin's writing style is so unique and captivating. The decision to incorporate dementia into the story was great, it really added to the story and it couldn't have been easy to do, so I really appreciated that aspect. The twists felt natural and I honestly didn't see a lot of them coming. Overall this book is kind of nuts but it really worked for me. I don't think everyone will enjoy it but those who appreciate dark humor and a good plot will.

Twelve years ago, Grace's older sister, Rachel, disappeared thought to have been murdered. Grace believes that she has discovered who killed her sister and she sets up an elaborate plan to prove she is correct.

Claiming to be the daughter of Carl Louis Feldman, a once-famous photographer, now a dementia patient in a nursing home Grace decides to abduct him as she believes he murdered her sister. What ensues is a wild trek across Texas. What follows is a compelling story of a woman taking a lot of crazy risks to bring to a close the mystery of what happened to her sister.
While I had a little trouble getting into the story, once it caught my attention I had a hard time putting the book down.

I really liked this book even though at times I was very confused, just keep in mind that not all the ghost in this book are paper.

Graces sister disappeared when she was 12 and it has been her obsession for all of her life, now she think she found the killer she’s going to make him confess. It doesn’t matter if he’s got dementia or not, she’s going to force him to remember her sister and where he put her body and also all the other girls Grace thinks he has killed.

Would you go on a road trip with a man you think is a serial killer? Just because he is old and has dementia is he safe or is he still a serial killer? Did he really kill her sister and all these other women or is it just her imagination?

I don’t want to give away too much of the story it would be kind of hard anyway there are times this book is confusing but if you stick with it I think you will end up enjoying it very much. It is an odd story but it kept me guessing and I ended up enjoying it very much in the end.

Catherine Taber’s narration was very good, she conveyed the emotion of this book very well.

3 1/2 Stars

Original, smart, imaginative, creepy, dark and very clever. A serial killer with dementia? Come on, now that's original. I'm fascinated. I loved it.

I can't help it I just fall in love with these twisted creepy tales. This one was very unique.
Grace just knows her sister is dead, even though her body has not been found. She also knows that Carl, a nursing home patient with dementia, was the one to kill her. So she decides to kidnap Carl and take him on a road trip to all the places he killed people.
I actually found myself liking Carl. He was funny and caring. Grace couldn't see truths staring her right in the face. But Carl could help her connect the dots.
What if everything you knew to be true was a lie? What if the people you thought were good were actually the bad ones? What if someone with dementia could discover all the answers you were looking for?
I am going to read more by this author. If you like strange and twisted this might be your cup of tea.

Grace's sister, Rachel, went missing years ago. She thinks she knows who killed her and she is determined to find out the truth. She lies and tells Dementia patient, Carl, and the lady who runs his halfway home, that is is his daughter. She is taking him on a 10-day trip to try to find out what he did to her sister and others he is suspected of killing. He was tried and acquited for one murder, which Grace believes he committed, in addition to her sister's murder, and some others who were murdered in Texas. The journey has lost of twists and what Grace finds out, in the end, is more than she ever had thought about in her head. I am giving this book a solid 4-star review. The concept of the mystery was unique and the relationship between Grace and Carl is intriguing and ever evolving.

Wow... this os one of those books that will keep you up late at night because you just can’t put it down. I read this book in two days. I kept lying to myself saying, “just one more chapter”. Grace’s sister disappeared when they were kids. Since then, she has been investigating her own set of suspects. She focuses on Carl, a photographer who took pictures of several of the women or areas they disappeared from. He was acquitted of killing her sister and several other women. Carl is now in a nursing home struggling with dementia. Grace convinces the lady in charge of the nursing home that she is his daughter. Under Carl’s conditions, he is willing to go on a trip with Grace to try and figure out whether or not he committed the crimes. A very addicting read with a different plot line that stands out from other books.

I received a free ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

P:aper Ghosts will wreck your mind and thoughts while you try to figure out the who dunnit... if you ever can! I was intrigued to read this novel based on two things: it was based in Texas, where I'm from and it's a mystery/thriller. I can say I was not let down. I enjoyed trying to figure out what would come next, though I was rarely correct.

By all accounts, Paper Ghosts should be a good novel. With its cat-and-mouse tale between potential serial killer and potential victim/victim's sister, you would think this would be a novel that gets your heart pounding and your pulse racing. This should be a book you read in one sitting. And yet, it is anything but that.

Instead, it is a novel that is so introspective that it is boring. It is a novel you question why you are reading it because nothing happens for the first half of the book. You spend so much time in the narrator's head, and she spends most of the time rehashing the steps she took to prepare her for this journey, that you wonder whether there is any point to the story. You question where the suspense is and contemplate quitting the story multiple times.

It mildly improves once you reach the halfway point, and if you make it that far you continue only because you want closure. Yet the closure you receive is inadequate, open-ended and leaving room for a potential sequel you have no interest in reading. It leaves you disappointed that there is not more there to capture your interest and to create tension. You regret the decision to keep reading it because the fizzle at the end is not what you hoped would happen.

Having not read Ms. Heaberlin's first novel but having read many a gushing review of it, I had high hopes about Paper Ghosts. Perhaps that is the issue, but I suspect not. The story is not set up to be a psychological thriller given the interplay between the two characters, yet that is exactly what Ms. Heaberlin ended up writing. We are in the narrator's head too much, which cancels out the little action that occurs and creates an unending series of disappointments as the story never takes off the way it should. I do plan to go back and read that first novel of hers one day, if only to compare the two novels. However, Paper Ghosts left such a poor impression that I am unfortunately hesitant to read anything else she might write in the future.

This one started off strong and intriguing. It lost its way in the middle and dragged. I did enjoy the relationship between Grace and Carl.