This review will be a little bit different from what I usually write. I really enjoyed this book once I was able to get into it and get some of the flow of the book down. This was a story of Abel/Stanford, his wives, children, and ancestors. This book had a lot of family drama, and I was here for all of it. It made the story very interesting. There is some content that speaks about the abuse of drugs, children, and adults. Because this book has a lot going on, to break down an overview of the book would be entirely too long. I will tell you somethings I did and didn’t like about this book though.

I loved:
- That there is a family tree in the beginning of the book to allow the reader to reference throughout the book. (I referenced this several times while reading as there are several characters and timelines)
- The story of each of the characters and felt the they where fully described to understand that specific character and what part they played in the history of the book.
- That there were a lot of details in the story, but not an over kill with too much detail. Each piece was needed (except the last chapter)
-I enjoyed the story telling of past and present day.

I did not like:
- The way in which each chapter was started. Because there were several characters in the book, it was hard to distinguish which character’s POV being told. It would take for me to read a couple lines or paragraphs before I understood who was talking or being described.
- The last chapter of the book. It felt as though it was very disjointed for me. I feel like it has nothing to do with the book.
- That at times, it felt that the book was not outlines appropriately. While I did enjoy the telling of the story in past and present, I did not like the flow of the time frames. Sometimes it felt it changed at the wrong time.

As you can see, there were things I liked and did not like, bot I did enjoy the book.
All in all, I would still recommend this book because it was a great story.

I reviewed this book on my BookTube channel. It will go live on 4/27. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/P28Pgt7GaEk

I love stories about family and secrets being revealed. I enjoyed seeing how multiple generations of family are affected. This is a definite recommendation.

I enjoyed this book but not as much as I had hoped. It’s probably because I was in a reading slump. Maoist Card’s writing is really good and I’ll definitely read something else by her.

I plan on revisiting this book later because I really think it was me and not the book.

Interesting. Ambitious. Engaging. A great plot and premise but felt confused at times based on how the story was executed.

this was an interesting book. I am not going to lie: i hoped i would like it more. I cannot say I didn't like it but it definitely was hard to follow at times. i started and stopped so many times that I almost marked it "do not finish"
I am glad I did decide to finish it; however, I am unsure if I would recommend it to someone unless generational stories are their thing

This title sounds absolutely in my wheelhouse, and yet never quite took off for me. I think this may be a case where it's the reader rather than the reading to blame.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

Normally I cringe at 2nd person but there’s something about this plot and this opening that grabbed all of my attention right away. “When you died the first time, you were still a young man in your thirties and had been working in England for less than a year.”

A first novel-a multi-generational novel extending from 1700(and a study of the slave/ plantation culture in Jamaica) to 2000 w-with the death of a Jamaican man who had seemingly escaped his prior life in Jamaica by assuming the identity of a deceased friend.A look into Jamaican history and the plantation life of slaves , and of present day descendants coping with their past. It was a good read, but I found the last part-the fate and lives of the three “ kidnapped girls”- totally unrelated to the main part of the book. I may have missed it, but am not inclined to reread and search out the connection.

This is a great story about family and identity and human connection. I really enjoyed reading this and cried my eyes out!

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Really well written spooky book full of Jamaican history as well as family history. I had a lot of trouble figuring out who was who and how they were related. Wishing I had read this in book form so I could easily flip back and forth to the family tree at the beginning. I loved how this really focused on the women characters and how they influenced the family, even though the premise is that a man fakes his death. Reading about plantation life is not for the faint of heart. I also was very confused as to what was going on in the last chapter. I would much rather had seen a wrap up of Abel's life. Or even Vera's.

Beautiful book - wonderfully told story that was really moving and absorbing. Really glad I got a chance to read this!

Based on the comparisons to Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing, I was expecting to be blown away by this novel. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy reading about any of these characters.

Ah! This one just did not work for me! I had trouble transitioning between the short stories. I could not see the connect.

Maisy Card weaves through a lineage tangled by the brutality of slavery & torture, complicated by lies and movement across countries. The novel explores how these lineages always have an imprint on you—how the ghosts, (and take ghosts literally & intangibly), of your people and your place live & breathe & inhabit & stay ready to remind you. Following character by character, moving all around a family tree, Card explores the ghosts of a family through the recollection, voice, decision, physicality and mental (in)stability of each person. She plays with POV, using the second person “you” and collective “we” powerfully. This book will stay with me a long time. Posted on Instagram, goodreads and B&N

<b>These Ghosts Are Family</b> by Maisy Card is a multi-generational family saga which takes place in both New York and Jamaica. It centers on one man, Stanford Solomon, who left his family in Jamaica and immigrated to New York. He never returns and has no further connection to her until, when the book opens, she reaches out and wants to meet. This one man's choices in life - lies and infidelities - are reflected through generations.

Their story is explored in a very unique way, when generations of family explore family connections, genealogy and history. Each chapter is told by a different person, each one opening more of the pages of Jamaica's history with slavery, racism, and the subjugation of women. Each person has ghosts to meet and grow comfortable with. Each one adds to the story of the whole.

I am a genealogist, and love emotionally rich, family stories. So this book should be perfect for me. Unfortunately it often felt disjointed and the transitions were jumpy rather than smooth. It is an excellent debut and I do look forward to what she writes in the future, though.

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and the author for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

“Even though they were just words, they built a world that she couldn't stop thinking about, that she felt trapped inside every night. She had been running away from her mother her whole life, and in the end it was her mother who left her.” Maisy Card, These Ghosts are Family


Description:
A transporting debut novel that reveals the ways in which a Jamaican family forms and fractures over generations, in the tradition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Stanford Solomon has a shocking, thirty-year-old secret. And it’s about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley, a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend.

And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.

The first two-thirds of this novel had me fascinated and intrigued. The Jamacian culture and family connections was a great backdrop for the story of Stanford and Abel. Their lives, wives and struggles. And as promised the ghosts from our past who some believe are all around us every day. Sometime in the final third the story lost me. I was confused with how new characters were related, which were introduced through a consistent back and forth with timelines. I finished the story somewhat disappointed that it didn't come together for me.

On his deathbed, Stanford Solomon reveals that he faked his death decades previously. When his two families learn about each other, they're forced to reckon with generations of family secrets. Full of Jamaican history, intense family dynamics, and reckoning with personal histories, THESE GHOSTS ARE FAMILY is an emotional tale. Each character is an important piece of the puzzle, and they come together to create a very dark, unexpected picture. Maisy Card is incredibly talented, and this book is an unforgettable ride.

I love a good multiple important character story. It is an interesting book where chapters style differ so much from each other. I felt a good rhythm from the changes in writing styles between chapters.