This was such a short but amazing book. Who didn't want to be a part of a group that investigated ghost happenings when they were a preteen or teenager? I know I did! This reminded me a lot of Stranger Things, but also just about any book or movie that revolves around a group of friends at that particular age when everything changes and we begin to question all that we know. I loved this book so much and did not want it to end!

I picked this up multiple times thinking, "ok, this time it's going to hook me." But I never seemed to be able to connect with the story enough to get hooked. Ultimately, I ended up giving up on it. I definitely still want to try it again, maybe one of those right time right place reads. I've moved to my Hopefully Someday reading list.

Such a wonderful story! I started this book thinking it would be more of a ghost story, and although I loved the ghosty bits, I found that the actual family story was even better! I plan to have my library book club read this one!

The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a short, bittersweet coming-of-age story. This novel could veer towards YA, but swings more adult just based on the portions of the narration dedicated to the protagonist's adult life. The story is about so many things (ghosts, friendship, Betamax vs. VHS, bullies, mental illness), but somehow comes together to form a cohesive whole. I would gladly read more set in this fictional universe.

Sublime. The perfect semi-spooky coming of age story, a great October read. I adored every moment of this story and found the nods to Davidson’s influences tasteful and beautiful.

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson is set in the eighties. The authors do a great job of creating a nostalgic mood. The main character, Jake Baker and his uncle decide to create the Saturday Night Ghost Club. In the club, the team, Jake’s friends and his uncle, visit well known haunted areas. After a while, Jake learns that there is more to his uncle than it seems.

This story started off a bit slow. But once I got to the first haunted spot, I was hooked. This was a great story with strong characters. I liked that every character seemed to be more complicated than your average secondary character. This kept me thinking about them long after I finished the story.

This was not at all what I expected. I was looking forward to a ghost story. I don't I'll be selling very many copies, very disappointing.

maybe more of a 3.5?

i'm not sure how i feel about this book, tbh. it definitely was not bad. but it also seemed to be a little all over the place tone-wise. it started out as a fun, light-hearted summer romp then veered into pretty dark territory. but i guess that can be chalked up to the "coming-of-age" aspect, can't it? jake growing up and finally seeing things for what they really are.

so yeah, i can go back and forth on this, i guess. a decent enough book.

THE SATURDAY NIGHT GHOST CLUB tells the story of Jake Baker, a kid growing up in 1980s Niagra Falls. Jake is a 12-year-old kid in need of friends, He spends much of his time with his uncle Calvin, an eccentric man who lives for conspiracy theory and stories of the occult. When Jake makes some new friends, Billy and Dove, Calvin initiates a Saturday Night Ghost Club and takes them around to some potentially haunted settings to encounter the supernatural.
This is a lovely bittersweet read with a little bit of mystery. which I highly recommend reading. Fully enjoyable!!!!

“ The Saturday Night Ghost Club” by Craig Davison was a book that I really didn’t know much about going into it. Of course, I had read the book blurb, but I was not familiar with any of the author’s work. I was in for a pleasant surprise.
This book comes in at a just over two hundred pages but don’t think that the story is lacking because of this. This is definitely a coming of age story that immediately reminded me of “ Stand by Me”. It was full of nostalgia! I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

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

This is one of the most interesting horror books I've ever read. I was surprised to find that this book started out as a thesis, because it's not dry at all.
Uncle Calvin is my favorite character. His story broke my heart. What happened to him gutted me. How he coped with it is very interesting and something I would love to do more research on.

The writing of this story was beautiful and so was the story being told even though it's haunting.

A coming of age story full of nostalgia. Likable characters, well-written, and a wee bit predictable. I will recommend it to students.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis

A short, irresistible, and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends

Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls – a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place – Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the “Saturday Night Ghost Club.” But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.

Review

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advanced reading copy of The Saturday Night Ghost Club in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.

I have actually been anticipating this novel for some time as I had seen it flashing across social media toward the end of last year/beginning of this year with its Canadian release. I ended up buying a HC copy of the Knopf Canada version solely based on the cover, you know, on top of it being by one of my favorite horror writers (Nick Cutter). Having said that, this reads noting like the novels he writes as Cutter. I have yet to read anything else Davidson has put out, but I have heard good things about Cataract City and Rust and Bone: Stories. After having read TSNGC, I will be adding these to my list ASAP.

So, you know how we cannot get enough nostalgic entertainment surrounding us right now? Well, The Saturday Night Ghost Club adds to the pile. Kids growing up in the 80’s: bullies, girls, weird late night trips with your Uncle to find ghosts. That type of thing. It has definitely earned its place in the category with Stranger Things, Boy’s Life, Stand By Me, etc. List goes on and, I’m sure, will continue growing until the writers of stranger things shrug their shoulders at what to do next.

This is a pretty quick read at around 270 pages, depending on your reading speed obviously, and can be finished in a day or 2. I wanted to lengthen it out a bit as it is a fairly emotional story to boot. I came into it expecting a Ghost Hunter-esque type story and ended up with a coming-of-age tale that I will be coming back to for years to come. Davidson really knows how to tug on the heartstrings and create characters that you can liken to yourself at their age. It is a very engaging story, fraught with ventures into the unknown, fantastic story-telling, and a climax that will have you erupting in tears.

Overall, if you enjoy coming-of-age tales with a drop of the paranormal, a hint of a love story, and a dash of horror, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a perfect late-summer read. I would honestly recommend it as a must-read to anybody, but I am a tad bias. I just wish I had had an Uncle Calvin growing up. Not saying my childhood was bad in any way, but TSNGC sounds like a much better way to spend time than catching lizards out in the backyard.

Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined.

The book is well written and has some definite coming of age moments. This is not a book I would normally have picked up at the store. It was not necessarily my cup of tea in subject matter but it was well written and had great detail.

3.5/5 stars!

We meet Jake as a brain surgeon, talking about memories and how our minds mold and shape them. It's an excellent framework for a coming of age story, set in Cataract City, (or Niagara Falls to the rest of us.) So let's get on with it, shall we?

As Jake struggles with school and the inevitable bully he meets brother and sister, Dove and Billy. They all become friends just in time for summer and the stage is set. Enter Uncle C and his weird curiosity shop and his Batphone. From which come calls originating from all over the country about weird and odd sights, happenings, hauntings and so forth. Uncle C and friends set out on Saturday nights to investigate local rumors and legends and everybody has a good time. Until they don't. What happens during these Saturday night outings? How did things go wrong? You'll have to read this to see.

I realize that I am one of the few people who didn't give this book 5 stars. This is why in two words: BOY'S LIFE. It was written by Robert McCammon and it's my favorite book of all time. I just couldn't help but compare the two, and BOY'S LIFE always came out ahead. But it's not just the comparison, it's the fact that there is a paragraph in this book that even uses some of the same phrases from my favorite quote of all time. That bothered me. It bothered me a lot.

That said, I did enjoy this tale. I found it not only to be nostalgic, as all good coming of age tales are, but I also found it to be poignant and sad. I did enjoy where the story took me, though I did guess, (for the most part), the dark secret that was revealed. I would have liked to have learned more about some of the characters, especially Dove, who had some secrets of her own. But this book was so short, I didn't feel that I got to know the characters as much as I would have liked.

Perhaps BOY'S LIFE has ruined all coming of age tales for me? Then again, I'm not sure of that, because I have enjoyed a few of them from independent authors lately and they all scored higher than this one for me. Perhaps it was only the similarities between this novel and my favorite book that disallowed me from becoming fully invested? Yeah, that's the reason I'm going with. Either way, this was a fun, (though poignant), quick read, and I enjoyed it!

Recommended!

*Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*

This was a sweet, likable coming-of-age story rife with childhood nostalgia, though the plot is not anything we haven’t seen before.

Take a little Stand By Me and a Little Stranger Things, toss in a little Dead Poet’s Society and top with the John Green Book of your choice, and you have The Saturday Night Ghost club, a familiar tale of sweet young misfits and the oddball adult directing their adventures over the course of one life-changing summer.

But surprise! (whoops, you’ve seen this before, and you won’t be surprised), the adult turns out to be far more troubled than the awkward but ultimately sensible children he pals around with! There is a twist of sorts (and it’s a decent one in the sense that it satisfyingly explains earlier events in the story), but you’ll see it coming well before it happens.

Luckily, the characters are lovable and Davidson really nails the atmospheric element of the story, so the book is a fun read even if it would have benefitted from a few more original touches.

Billed as "Stranger Things" meets "Stand By Me" I was excited to read this coming of age story with a supernatural twist. When the story begins, we meet our young protagonist and his conspiracy theorist uncle. You can tell that the two of them have a great connection with each other and you can't help but love them both. When two new kids move to the neighborhood the uncle decides to create a "ghost club" so they can go around and solve some of the mysteries behind the supposedly haunted areas in the city. During the story you'll get many of the standard coming of age tropes: bullies, friendships, first love, etc. As the story moves forward you begin to realize that there is much more going on than previously seen which leads to a heartbreaking conclusion. Ultimately, I was left wanting more. I went into the book hoping it would be much more "Stranger Things" filled with supernatural/paranormal stuff, and instead it was really just a coming of age story.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is quirky and heartfelt and fantastic. I loved the atmosphere and the characters and wanted more after it was finished.

Big thank you to Peginud Books for giving me teh arc to read .!

This book is addicting. .Davidson wrote it in such a way that it had all these little mysterious and unanswered questions that had you keep reading to find out more about characters and the story being told. The characters were also my favorite. Each of them was unique and never got overshadowed by the story being told. Said story was magnificently written too. The story flowed together going between the past and present. making it easy to read and to get immersed in the story.

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson surprised me; it turned out to be more than what I expected.

from description: "A short, irresistible, and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends
Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls - a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place - Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent."

When the novel began with the observations of a brain surgeon, I was a bit taken aback. The narrative <b>is</b> about misfit kids and an unforgettable summer, but there is also an acutely philosophical theme of memory and its vagaries. The adult Jake moves from his current career as a neurosurgeon to his memories of the summer when he was twelve--his family, his friends, and his understanding of events in the past.

Read in March; blog review scheduled for June 26.

NetGalley/Penguin Group
Coming of Age. First published in 2018; July 9, 2019. Print length: 240 pages.