"Ghoster" by Jason Arnopp is a wild, creepy thriller that keeps you hooked from the start. It follows Kate, who is excited to move in with her boyfriend, Scott, only to find he’s vanished, leaving his phone behind—and nothing else. Driven by curiosity and a sense of betrayal, she dives into his phone, discovering things that make her question who Scott really is.

Arnopp skillfully mixes supernatural horror with modern fears of technology and relationships. The story’s dark humor and constant twists make it hard to put down, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, it throws you for another loop. The spooky atmosphere and clever storytelling make "Ghoster" a thrilling read for horror fans and mystery lovers alike.

How far will one woman go to uncover whether she’s been ghosted?

When Kate Collins meets and falls in love with Scott Palmer at a weekend retreat on how to curb phone addiction, and he finally asks her to relocate and move in with him, she is beyond thrilled.

As the date of her move nears, Kate's contact with Scott goes silent. Determined to squelch her fears that she has been dumped, or even that he has died, she packs up and moves her life. But when she gets to his apartment what she finds jolts her. Not only is Scott not there, but the apartment is empty with the exception of his cell phone.

Has the love of her life ghosted her? But why would he leave his phone in an empty apartment? So Kate decides to play detective. She figures out Scott's password to his phone. And that's when the situation begins to get very creepy.

Once into his phone, Kate discovers certain apps which she cannot believe belong to the person she fell in love with. How was he able to hide this other side of himself?

The story gets even eerier as Kate begins to see what she believes is a ghost and she starts to receive strange calls with strange voices from Scott's phone. But she is determined to find the answers and thus begins her obsession with his phone.

I am logging back in after a couple of years and unfortunately the book was archived before I could read it. I started it and when I had logged in it was no longer available. Will be happy to read and review

Archived before I could read this book unfortunately. I was not able to read this book. Sorry about any inconvenience.

This book just wasn’t for me unfortunately. The writing was good but I just couldn’t get into the story.

Another great, creepy modern thriller from Arnopp. If you're familiar with his previous novel, then I think you'll have a good idea of the feel of Ghoster.

Well-written, creepy, and gripping. Recommended.

I am a millennial so I love novels about technology and other things that I have grown up with. Ghoster features social media, heartbreak and horror. Kate was going to move in with Scott but he is suddenly no where to be found. I don't want to give too much away but this is quite a read! I loved the fun moments but I also loved the spooky, chilling moments.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Ghoster
By: Jason Arnopp


REVIEW ☆☆☆.5

Ghoster started out well enough, and I was absorbed for the first bit. At some point, the story just started to feel repetitive and slow, and I lost interest. A faster pace would have been better. The premise is good, and I wish the story would have held together. Overall, I did like the idea but wanted more.

A really fun & terrific comedy/horror. Kate has been ghosted by her new boyfriend Scott, on the day she is supposed to move in with him. He's not there. And neither is his belongings. Just a phone left behind. And the it gets interesting, spooky, fun and crazy!!

This book made me glad I am not dating anymore and didn’t have to date much in my twenties. You never truly know someone, especially with todays world of social media. You might think you know a lot about people, enough to even love them, but really they could be leading a totally different life. If it seems too good to be true, it just might be. Kate Collins, believes that she has met her perfect soulmate and cant’t wait to move in with him but then he disappears and things start to unravel from there. It’s a horror/thriller and its not my usual choice of genres but I found it entertaining and made me want to keep reading. It also creeped me out. Reminds me slightly of Riley Sager’s writing in that it is before and after. Definitely interesting, would recommend to those who are not easily creeped out.

An entertaining and slightly crazy read. This was an eye opening book into today's dating works through online dating sites, so prevalent in today's society.

Where to start? I thought this was a thriller and it ended up being horror. I thought this was a social media thriller and really had that mindset. The events just seem to get more extreme that you really need to suspend disbelief for this one. Others have said the same thing. Maybe if I went in knowing this, I would feel differently. With that being said up front, it was still a 3 star read for me. It reminded me of that Black Mirror episode and the writing really was great. I was engaged from the beginning, I just wasn't expecting horror.

3 stars for great writing that really kept me engaged.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I expected this story to be a little bit of a chick lit/Rom-Com kind of book. What I did
not expect was any sort of supernatural elements involved at all and it kind of threw me for a loop.
I very much enjoyed this story though it was a cute read that I didn't have to give much attention
to because it really spoke to me. It starts with our main character finding the man of her dreams
on a dating app. Things are going great and moving along quickly, in fact she is due to move in with
him in a few days time. The only down side is with only a few days till the big move her prince charming
has disappeared. He's stopped answering calls texts, emails, in fact he has ghosted her completely and
Kate has no idea why. The story is told from two different time lines the one where Kate meets Scott
and falls in love and it talks about how their relationship blooms, then it changes to when he is MIA
and no one knows what is going on. I really liked how it was written that way because it let you as
a reader try to figure out what was going on before it was actually revealed and it let you see if
you could spot any red flags that our main character might have missed. What I did find interesting was
the author jumped between a time when Kate and Scott were all lovey-dovey and then to the time when
Scott is MIA. It was very interesting to see things play out on both sides as the story progressed.
The best part about that was the author signified the change in time by putting a date at the top of
the chapter, that small detail saves the reader a lot of confusion and made the book one million times
more enjoyable because you were able to get right into the story without trying to figure out what
was going on time frame wise. I highly suggest that every one read this book however if you are going
to do it then clear your schedule because once you start you won't be able to put it down until you
finish it no matter what the time. The best part was when the book went from a chick lit book to a
supernatural story it was very unexpected and I didn't think I'd enjoy it however I loved every word.
Great read and I'm very glad that I got the chance to check out this story. You won't want to miss it.
The ending was amazing I never saw it coming.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Ghoster had all the elements to be a great read. The premise was there.. it really was.
But something was missing from this book. Something was missing from the writing and it ultimately left a lot to be desired. I was pretty disappointed midway through the book.. nevermind at the end.

It had such potential, it just didn't reach it.
BUT i still did enjoy bits and pieces of this book honestly.

Published by Orbit on October 22, 2019

Ghoster is a clever variation on a ghost story. It suggests a supernatural basis for the supernatural hold that smartphones have over their users. Are we the masters of our gadgets or, by wiring ourselves to the digital world, have we become lost souls?

Kate Collins thought her luck had finally changed. After dating a string of losers, she met Scott with an assist from Tinder. Convinced that he would be the one to save her from a life of loneliness, she agreed to move in with him. He has a nice apartment with a sea view but it is in a different city, so she gives up her lease and quits her job as a paramedic and readies herself for a new life.

A few days before the scheduled move, Scott goes silent. Texts receive no response. Voicemails go unanswered. When the movers arrive, she has them load up her property and races to Scott’s place ahead of them. Convinced that Scott is not answering the door because he is seriously injured, she breaks in and finds that the place is empty, all the furniture gone, with no clue as to Scott’s whereabouts. Was he abducted and killed? Kate assumes the worst until her best friend tells her that Scott is still posting on social media. The realization that she has been played by Scott is even worse than her fear that Scott was dead.

Having nowhere else to go, Kate squats in the apartment. She finds Scott’s apparently discarded iPhone, figures out his password, and becomes obsessed with the phone’s content. Apart from the usual treasury of porn and a record of Scott’s Tinder contacts, she finds videos of sleeping people and Scott's online diary. None of that is quite as disturbing as the sudden appearance of Scott’s less charming twin brother, the fresh scratch marks at the door, and the occasional appearance of a blue spectral figure.

Ghoster creates the suspense that readers of horror stories demand. For much of the novel, ambiguity drives the plot. Is Scott dead or is he playing a nasty trick on Kate? Is Scott’s brother simply self-centered or is he malicious? Is Scott’s apartment haunted or is there a logical explanation for the phenomena that bewilder Kate? The story works because the reader is never quite sure where it will go.

Kate’s chatty first-person narration also contributes to the novel’s success. Jason Arnopp’s lively prose and his sympathetic portrayal of Kate make the novel an easy and fun read. The story’s message — we should all think about our enslavement to smartphones — is all the more resonant because it never gets in the way of an engaging plot.

RECOMMENDED

As other reviewers before me have stated this book is actually horror that starts out as a sort of love story/thriller/mystery. I used to be a big fan of horror until the psychological thriller genre came on the scene and honestly I would not have requested this book had it been in the actual horror category. But I’m glad I read it and found it very enjoyable! The characters were interesting and well fleshed out and I found myself turning pages faster than I would have thought possible. This could also be a cautionary tale for anyone truly addicted to their smartphone! I will definitely check out other titles by this author.

Short Summary: Kate is moving in with her boyfriend, Scott, but when she shows up in her moving van he’s gone, the house completely empty except for his cell phone. Determined to find him, wanting to know why he’d do this, she starts looking through his phone but the things she finds have her questioning everything.

Thoughts: I wasn’t anticipating the supernatural aspects but it sure did make for a suspenseful, gotta keep flipping the pages to figure out what the heck is going on, and unsettling read.

Verdict: Honestly, I was loving how entertained I was by this one, but the ending was super bizarre and Arnopp went a bit overkill on the “technology is evil message”.

Kate Collins is addicted to social media. In order to crack the habit, she enrolls in a technology detox program and buys an old school indestructible Nokia phone. At the detox program, she meets Scott Palmer. The two hit it off and soon, Scott asks Kate to move in with him. On the day she is meant to move in, she arrives at his apartment in a new city to find it abandoned with no Scott, no furniture, and the utilities cut off. She does, however, find his cell phone. Knowing no one in town, and having nowhere else to go, she crashes in his empty apartment with her moving boxes. In the apartment, she finds some oddities, scratches on his door, the feeling that she's being watched, and a strange phone call on Scott's cell.

Convinced that something bad has happened to Scott, Kate hunkers down to solve the mystery. As she slowly begins to unravel the mystery, she meets people that knew Scott and she also hacks his phone to access his social media, Tinder, texts, and personal diary. Kate discovers that she didn't really know the man she loves as much as she thought. Did these secrets lead Scott to a bad end and will Kate follow?

Let's get this straight, I loved the concept of this book. However, the execution of that concept left me wanting. The first half to 75% of this book is written like a thriller with almost no horror elements thrown in besides some creepy phone calls and an overly aggressive dog. There are supernatural elements to the story in the first half but they are presented in a very nonchalant way with little reaction from the characters. The mystery surrounding Scott is intriguing and kept me involved but I kept waiting for the supernatural or something scary to happen. When the mystery answers start to reveal themselves, the book had felt like it was dragging along and I was too checked out for the finale.

That said...hoooooooooooly crap. The ending was superb. Even though I felt like this book needed 100 fewer pages and I was happy to get to the end, the end did not disappoint and brought me right back to being super invested. I was, and remain, shocked by what transpired at the end of this book.

Jason Arnopp uses horror like he's seasoning food with a broken salt shaker. He sprinkles a little bit, here a little bit there, until the lid falls off and all the horror salt falls out. This is a fun horror/thriller that's definitely worth your time to check out.

This story went in a direction that I wasn't expecting and don't particularly like (just a personal reading preference). It started out very interesting and intriguing but got very dark and scary pretty quickly. I think fans of horror would love this but those who are a little wary to things that go bump in the night may not enjoy it as much.

I received an e-arc of this book to read and review from the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.