I received a digital arc of this book via Netgalley though all thoughts are my own.

This was a fascinating series of short stories about a woman named Rose who was killed on her Prom Night in the 1950s and has spent much of her afterlife traveling what is known as the road. She's met a variety of living people as well as those who are dead and other entities.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it particularly if you enjoy ghost stories with a twist.

Trigger warnings: death, murder, some violence

I was introduced to Rose Marshall via a short story about her and BOY was I happy to find out that her story was expanded into book form! I love Rose. Her snark, her outlook on "life" and how she really grew in her knowledge of the afterlife she was "living". Sad story, but she made the best out of what she had and was.

Her friends are really great and the villain is so evil, it will be a pleasure to see Rose take him down. (Spoiler alert: it's not in this book. It's a series so I have to be patient. BOOO!) I did enjoy the redemption arc of one of the minor characters, Bethany. She was allowed to grow too. The secondary characters are just as well fleshed out as the MC, which I really enjoy. It's not all about our brave heroine.

Really interesting world created by the author, which is no surprise, as this author has some serious writing chops.

All in all, a very good story told in an interesting way. It's a bit choppy and jumpy, as it started out as 12 stories written in the same world for publication one a month for a year. It does tie together, just not as smoothly as something written in novel form. 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4, because I want to see the Bad Guy get his NOW and because a tad on the less linear than I would like side. Not bad and still highly recommended, especially if you like unique premises in a contemporary, but not quite urban fantasy world. Not sure how I would place this genre-wise actually. I guess it should just be shelved in "Awesome" and "Good Start to a Series".

My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group-DAW for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Thank you to the Publisher for allowing me to read an early copy for honest review through Netgalley!
The Adventures of a Ghost Girl, Rose Marshall, along the Twilight Road. She's a hitchhiking ghost forever Sweet 16, looking for a ride, a coat, and a malted milkshake.
I'm a fan of Seanan McGuire. She can write a good story. Sparrow Hill Road was a fun time.
It's composed of short stories all centering around the ghostly adventures of Rose Marshall. It introduces the ghost world and Twilight Road that Rose is stuck in. I really enjoyed it. Every story was good, there wasn't a bad one in the bunch. I was sucked into the world of Rose Marshall and I loved learning all about the ghost world and its rules. I saw in a review where someone compared it to Neil Gaiman's American Gods because it set up this mythology around the ghost world, and I'd definitely agree with that. The mythology of it all was just really fun to learn and get into.
I really liked the writing of it. Seanan McGuire knows how to write a story. I was sucked into all of them just curious to see what was going to happen to Rose next.
If I had one criticism, it would be that this is a slower paced book. It took me longer to get through it than it usually does with other books. I think that's totally because of the format that it's told in. Because it's interwoven short stories, there are a lot of stops and starts. Just when you're sucked into a story, it ends, and then the whole process of starting over with a new one begins. I think I would have enjoyed it better if it had just been one continuous story.
I'd definitely recommend Sparrow Hill Road and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. I want to know more about Rose and what's going to happen with her next. I love the Ghost Mythology this book presented. It was a really fun read.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5
A Ghostly Good Time

Is there anything that Seanan McGuire can't write, and write well? <em>Sparrow Hill Road</em> begins McGuire's take on ghosts.

There are legends of ghosts all over the country: The Girl in the Diner; The Phantom Prom Date; The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Though the stories have deviated and changed from the original tellings, they are all based on one story, one legend, one myth ... except that she isn't a myth. She's Rose Marshall and she died in 1952 in Michigan, at the sweet age of sixteen. She was killed by Bobby Cross - a former movie star who sold his soul to stay young forever. The catch is that he has to take life from the living in order to do it.

Rose escaped Bobby's clutches and now Bobby is trying to finish the job. It's been sixty years since Rose died and became a Road Ghost and she's determined not to let Bobby terminate her completely.

As with just about everything I've read from McGuire, she's a master at creating worlds with their own rules and sharing that world with the reader. Here we're in a shadow of our own world, traveling through time. This spirit world ... <em>these</em> spirit worlds ... have an incredible set of rules and McGuire helps us navigate those rules the way Bobby Cross navigates the roads.

In addition to her world-building, McGuire is just a great story-teller. Her characters (even her dead ones) seem so real; they feel like people you know (or want to know). Her stories build naturally and her way with words keeps you reading.

In her Special Edition Introduction, McGuire relates the story of how these Rose Marshall tales came to be. In essence this book is a collection of short stories that have been tied together to make it a novel. However, it still reads like a series of short stories despite the 'fix-up.' Still, I'd rather read a Seanan McGuire fix-up novel than most anyone else's work.

Looking for a good book? <em>Sparrow Hill Road</em> is a ghost novel by Seanan McGuire. By Seanan McGuire I said. That means it will surprise you and entertain you and you will be glad to have read it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Seanan McGuire's stories always have a fascinating richness to them. This trait is especially evident in Sparrow Hill Road, a series of interconnected stories about Rose Marshall. Also known as the Phantom Prom Date, Rose's stories follow her along the roads of the U.S. and of the multiple layers of the realms of the dead while she "lives" and avoids her biggest enemy: Bobby Cross, the man who murdered her and wants her soul.

While the linearity was a bit off-putting, it was still fun to see the different encounters that Rose has throughout the years since her death. Sometimes she was incredibly clever, sometimes so unaware that I was metaphorically clutching my head between my hands at the fate that waited for her in those tales.

There was a lot of folklore that was embedded within the story that made for a detailed, rich experience. From the hitchers and road ghosts to the living/"living" creatures that interact with them, Rose interacted with a lot of different "people". It was interesting to get the information about how each one works, how their magic is tied to the road or their deaths and so on.

This may not have been my favorite of Seanan's books, as I didn't enjoy reading it nearly as much as others, but I would still recommend it to others because it's the beginning of more ghost stories whose endings have not yet happened (for me, anyway). It also has some connections to the InCryptid series, which I am loving, so I will be looking forward to The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, book two of the Ghost Roads stories series.

Ever wonder about that lost-girl ghost on the side of the road? What if she started hitchhiking? This collection of short, interlocked stories is narrated by Rose and is alternately presented in present day and in flashbacks as deftly as Rose moves through the world of ghost roads and a shining chrome diner. The book is more like a poetic journal of a road trip through the underworld, as if the river Styx was a highway. Poetic language--McGuire's writing is always lyrical to me--gives the prose an extra punch that I loved. Since each story could stand on its own, it sometimes felt repetitious when I read "chapters" back to back.

Overall, it's a very different kind of ghost story, and I enjoyed it.

***This is a combined review of The Girl in the Green Silk Gown and Sparrow Hill Road***

Although I had a copy of Sparrow Hill Road on my Kindle to read, I mistakenly started with Seanan McGuire’s second book in her Ghost Roads series, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. It actually worked out well that I did. Sparrow Hill Road is a compilation of stories and scenarios introducing readers the character of Rose Marshall, our hitchhiking ghost. It certainly would have whetted my appetite for more Rose, but I think the cohesive novel pulled me in more so than the individual stories might have. I did not mind having to go back and do a little catching up, filling in some of the blanks—like how in the world Gary became a car?! And I wanted to know more about how she became tied to Persephone, questions which are answered in Sparrow Hill Road.

Talk about intricate world building! The layers of the afterlife created by the author and tying it in with existing mythology was genius. And McGuire did it in such a way as to make it very tangible. Rose’s death was no accident, but she did not quite serve the purpose of her killer had planned for her. As a result, he has been hunting her for the sixty years since she lost her life at age sixteen. Rose has made a life for herself, thumbing it on the highways of America. She has earned a name for herself, although not all the legends about her are true. Some, of course, are. The roads themselves have a life of their own, built on history and memory. And the weigh stations, or phantom diners, found along the way aren’t far behind that, given the power they hold.

Sparrow Hill Road offers a glimpse at how Rose became who she is now—how she earned her name as the Phantom Prom Date and various other nicknames. The reader gets to see her in her early years as a ghost, her attempts to save others from a similar fate, and her run ins with those who would wish her harm, including one of her own relatives. I enjoyed this collection quite a bit as it allowed me to hold onto Rose Marshall for a little bit longer after finishing The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. I enjoyed all of the stories. Rose can be rough around the edges at times, but that is what makes her Rose. She did not have an easy life when alive and it is no different in death. She died at the age of sixteen and will forever be stuck in the body of a sixteen year old. She has watched those she loved die, sometimes seeing them down the road.

What a ride The Girl in the Silk Gown was! Pun intended. Rose has long been on the run from Bobby Cross, the man behind her untimely death. She knows she must find a way to stop him, but she isn’t quite there yet. A tattoo seal on her back is the only thing that is preventing Bobby from getting his hands on her—but he’s found a way to break it, and Rose is now fighting for her very existence. Bobby even scares me—I really don’t like him. He is evil to the core. Talk about the ultimate road trip. From corn fields to the roads of America, and even to Greece where we meet up with the gods. Finding allies among enemies and making new friends, Rose is determined to get out from under Bobby’s clutches. There was no sitting back in my chair or lying comfortably on the bed as I read. No, I was sitting up, tense as can be or standing and pacing as I read, dying to know what would happen next. Where I do think reading Sparrow Hill Road first would have come in handy, is having a better grip on who some of the returning characters were. Not yet knowing though, did not prevent me from enjoying or following the story. Rose may be sixteen in appearance, but she has had more than a life time of experience. She resourceful and a risk taker, which serves her well.

Some of my favorite characters were the routewitches, especially the Queen. I do hope we get to see more of her in future books. Their tie to the roads and the road ghosts in an interesting one which McGuire has fit so naturally into the world she has created. The Ocean Lady, an example of a road that is a character, is both mysterious and powerful. I can see why she is feared and revered. I also really like Emma, who is one of Rose’s friends. She has her reasons for preferring to live among the dead rather than the living, but will do what she can to help Rose.

I could not help but think of the television show Supernatural. This series has a similar feel, although different. I am very much looking forward to reading more by Seanan MacGuire, both in this series and in her other series. I hear they are pretty awesome too.

Well, this one is a bit jumbled. Using legendary tales, this is a ghost who hitchhikes. The legend part and an older time in history lend this tale a good amount of mixed emotions. Rose, once a sixteen-year-old who's forever stuck as a ghost because of some bad choices. Parts of it are repeated, I think that's because Rose has been stuck for so long in her current plight. Overall, it was okay.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own. This review is left of my own free volition.

I don't normally read ghost fiction but I really enjoyed this book. More along the lines of urban paranormal, which I don't normally like either. Intriguing premise, I will be interested to see where the series goes.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley.

Seanan McGuire, guys. She's got a real talent for turning the story you thought you knew on its head. This time, she tackles the story of the phantom prom date. Rose Marshall died in 1952, but she's been pretty busy since then. This novel is a collection of short stories featuring Rose as she hitchhikes across America, encountering hapless humans, other spirits; trying to save the damned and avoid her own personal monster, Bobby Cross.

This is a fun collection/novel. My only complaints: Rose doesn't feel as real to me as some of McGuire's other protagonists. I don't know why; maybe she's too passive? Also, Bobby Cross doesn't work for me at all. He feels paper thin, too obviously a caricature of James Dean turned evil. Other than that, this is an entertaining urban fantasy from an original perspective.

Sparrow Hill Road is a bit disjointed. Now I’m not sure if that is literary genius because the main character is a ghost and so her life/afterlife IS a little disjointed time-wise or because that is just the nature of this collection of stories.

Rose is dead and she has been for about sixty years now but that doesn’t stop her from hitching a ride now and again and dropping into the living world to have a little bit of a good time or help someone in need. Sometimes she is able to save them, but other times, she is only able to help them after and make sure they don’t get stuck in the in-between of life and death.

Some of these stories could be really sad, depending on how you view death. I tried to just go with this storie's version of it; it was just a doorway to a new adventure and so it was okay when one of the people Rose tried to help live ended up dead. At least she was there to hold their hand and make sure they ended up where they were supposed to go.

Rose is the main character of a thousand different ghost stories. Some of them more true than others, in some she is the source of death and in others she is the guardian angel looking out for the living in diners, truck stops and on highways.

Overall Rose is really likable and she has a pretty good understanding of her death now. She even has a bit of a calling and a few friends to boot. Still she is always looking over her shoulder, watching out for the man that killed her on Sparrow Hill Road and trying desperately to save more people for becoming another victim to the man in the car that made a deal with the devil.

There are parts in this which made me happy and some made me almost cry. I really loved getting Rose’s story of her death; it was beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time. I have mixed feeling about Gary and his choices BUT I reserve judgement because I think later it is going to work out as a really weird type of HEA, if ghosts get those.

The world building of the twilight and midnight was interesting and I liked the glimpses we got into the different kinds of ghosts that can be made and what they might be up to. I also really liked the possibilities this presented for future stories and other things from death lore that popped up like Valkeries (I’m very interested in those creatures). It seems like just about anything could happen and I like jumping into Urban Fantasy that stretches the norms of the genre and takes chances on new ideas you don’t see often, especially as the main focus and a dead girl being the MC is definitely not something I’ve read until now.

Rose Marshall is sixteen and running from the man who ran her off the road. She’s been sixteen and on the run since prom night. Since she’d made a rash decision while angry. Since 1952 when she took the keys to her brother’s car and the short cut on Sparrow Hill Road to look for her boyfriend. Bobby Cross is still hunting her, trying to catch the one that got away and feed his immortality a little longer. He won’t stop until he catches up to her. But at least he can’t kill someone who’s already dead.

Seanan McGuire’s Sparrow Hill Road is interesting to me in a lot of ways. It started out as a set of twelve short stories published across a year. Those stories were well received enough to be reworked a little and republished as a novel. That, to me, is all kinds of awesome. Then you jump into Sparrow Hill Road being a ghost’s story rather than a ghost story. It’s Rose’s story to tell and she’s well aware of a lot of the folk lore surrounding her and those like her. I actually have a little trouble talking about this one because of how much I enjoyed it.

This isn’t a settled book by any means. It roams from decade to decade and coast to coast, from living to dead and back again. The characters likewise never seem to settle. Weather that means the phantom driver who spends his afterlife racing the road he died on or the route witches whose magic is called from driving and the road itself. Pauses are brief and stopping or being stopped always seems to carry a risk. That doesn’t mean that the book moves at a breakneck pace throughout its run, Ms. McGuire does a fantastic job with her pacing here. It never felt like I needed to pause and reread something to understand what was going on. It also never felt like the book was dragged down by over explaining things.

Rose’s ability to borrow life from a willingly offered piece of outer ware is fascinating to me, likewise the rule that she can enjoy food and drink only if it’s willingly offered by a living being. Both serve to allow her to, temporarily at least, experience the parts of living that she’d enjoyed and interact with normal people as though she were one of them. It also serves to limit Rose. She can only borrow life until the sun comes up so she’s a ghost, cold and insubstantial, during the day and any food she eats that isn’t willingly offered tastes of ash. The aspect of Rose having chosen to guide the dead is also an interesting one. It isn’t something she’s bound to, at least not beyond feeling a sort of responsibility for the newly dead. It’s something she doesn’t always want to do and, in fact, something of a mirror to her habit of trying to help drivers avoid their deaths. Of course, both of those choices lead to her being seen around horrific traffic accidents and being blamed as a result.

That feels like sort of a running thing through the book, people act without knowing the full story. It happens with Rose, with the story of the pretty dead girl up on Sparrow Hill Road and all the people she’s supposedly killed. It happens with a number of the characters introduced within each section of the book, they react to the bits they know but act before digging further. They jump to conclusions while angry or confused and go based on their impressions. It’s a sort of humanizing thing that allows for a lot of the conflict in the book without it feeling like it was just thrown in.

Speaking of conflict, if there’s a bit that didn’t entirely work for me it winds up being Bobby Cross himself. This goes back to Sparrow Hill Road having originally been a set of short stories. Bobby Cross feels like a week antagonist, largely because he doesn’t have much to do early on. He’s the one who killed Rose. He wants to finish the job. Not has to, wants to. But for a lot of the book’s run it doesn’t feel like he’s a threat. The antagonists from other sections tend to be more present, likely because that’s their moment while Bobby is running a long game. When he’s effective, he’s great but when he’s not he just sort of feels like a disposable villain of the week.

I started writing this review knowing that I was going to give it a five out of five. I enjoyed it enough to not really know how to write about it without just throwing words for pages on end. Even now there are bits that I want to go back and add more thoughts on. I think I’ve come to a decent place to end this though. Sparrow Hill Road is well worth the read and I’m super excited for the next one.

This is the story of Rose Marshall, mostly after her untimely death. Rose was a sweet 16 teenaged girl who was a little pissed and was driving herself to the prom when she was run off the road by another car. As it turns out, it was Bobby Cross who was driving that car and he meant trouble for Rose, trouble that doesn't go away even once she's dead.

The book has an interesting format. There are stories about the different urban legends she has become associated with. And there is an overall arc about her conflict with Bobby Cross. Both kept my interest. It's also told part in the present and part in flashbacks. In spite of all that, it's easy enough to follow what's going on and enjoy the ride.

There is good characterization, especially of Rose. The world-building is solid and interesting. The stories move along at a decent pace and relate to each other.

Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It's worth a read if you enjoy urban fantasy or ghost stories. And if you enjoy other books by this same author, such as the InCryptid series, then you will probably enjoy this book as well.

Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire is book one in the Ghost Roads series. It was originally published in May 2014, a new edition is being released June 2018 from DAW. Book two, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire is expected to be released July 17th, 2018 from DAW.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This doesn't affect my opinions. Everything herein is my own opinion and freely given.

Great re-print of some Seanan McGuire shorts! I always love her work; she creates characters that are easy to care about.

Interesting read. Ghost story within ghost stories. Seanad McGuire books are always good fun.
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This was the first book by Seanan McGuire that I've read and I really enjoyed it. I have more of her books I look forward to reading.

Rose Marshall died on Sparrow Hill Road in 1952. Dressed in her green prom dress, out looking for a date who never picked her up, she is run off the road by Bobby Cross. Now she haunts North America, guiding lost souls home. She’s been called the Girl in the Green Silk Gown, the Phantom Prom Date, the Woman in the Diner, and the Ghost of Sparrow Hill Road. She’s really a hitchhiking psychopomp, bound to highways and truck-stops and roadside diners, who tastes death in the air and saves the lives she can while also helping the newly dead souls find their way into the twilight. Rose will forever be stuck in the guise of a 16-year-old, but isn’t innocent anymore.

This is the first book in the Ghost Roads series, first published in 2014, reissued and with a new cover now that the second book, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, is set to be released in July. Jumping back and forth through time, Sparrow Hill Road introduces readers to Rose Marshall. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect when I started reading as the beginning meanders around a bit. Rose talks about her small town life in Buckley Township, Michigan and the night she died. But there is also quite a bit of page time spent wandering the ghost roads with her as she hitches rides and tries hard to guide those travelers away from the death that is awaiting them up the road. Some times she succeeds and sometimes she fails, but all the while her legend grows and evolves.

I hadn’t realized when I picked this book up that it was originally put out as a serial, but it makes sense. Once the reader gets through the introductions and ghost stories and is finally comfortable with the world Rose inhabits, the main plot starts to take shape. Rose is still being chased by the man who killed her, Bobby Cross, and is determined to end his reign of terror. Her journey will take her across the country looking for help and then back home again. She never gives up, but always remains aware that he is the one who could end her existence for good. And even though she would have preferred to experience life beyond the age of sixteen, she’s gotten used to the life she does have. She takes her comforts where she can. Milkshakes at the Last Chance Diner and small talk with her bestie Emma. Borrowed coats that give her the ability to be corporal for a short time and freely given truck stop food that tastes like heaven. She may still look like a girl of sixteen, but she’s grown much wiser in the years since her death. She’ll need help in her quest, and fortunately for her, she’s made friends throughout her travels.

Seanan McGuire weaves stories I love to read. She’s so imaginative and original. I knew I would enjoy Sparrow Hill Road as soon as Rose introduced herself and started to tell her story in the first chapter. This book leaves off in a way that keeps the reader guessing, but gives them just enough closure to be able to wait for what comes next. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series when it releases in July. Final Grade-B

Favorite Quote:

I have never wanted to punch a highway in the face as badly as I do right now.

Rose Marshall was run off the road and killed in 1952. This turned her into a hitcher, a ghost that has to hitchhike her way through the twilight, and she often tries to guide the dead where they need to go, or help those that can be saved from dying in car accidents. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Because Rose is a ghost, she exists in a limnal space between living and dying. Her story bounces around in time as well as space, moving around the United States and touching on all the lives or unlives she had touched in the years since her death. There are a lot of other types of ghosts mentioned in this book, some of whom are relatively harmless, some of whom are dangerous. Rose has been dead a long time, and has maintained her sense of humor and morality. That doesn't stop her from walking away from those that manage to hurt her, but she isn't vindictive. The other characters we meet along the way,

This was originally published in 2014, and information included in the back of the book tells us about Rose's origins as a RPG character and topic of songs that Seanan had written. Fans of Seanan's work definitely will love this one if they haven't read it yet. Rose is a wonderfully three dimensional character, and one that is great to get to know in this novel. She took on a life of her own, as all great characters do, and her story will continue in this summer's "The Girl In The Green Silk Gown."

Rose died years ago, but she's still in danger from the man who originally took her life. Now a hitcher and a psychopomp, she spends her days roaming an America much different on its surface than on its "ghost roads." Although Rose's story is compelling in and of itself, it's McGuire's exploration of the genesis and evolution of an urban legend, and the flavor of the land, that make this such an enjoyable read.

Sorry but I couldn't get into the book at all. I tried though, I'm so sorry for my ADD brain.