4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This intergenerational novel follows a Jamaican family and how one person's decision can have effects that last for generations. I highly recommend this book for those interested in the Jamaican diaspora and for those who love literary fiction. This book needs to be taught in schools and read in all the book clubs.

Maisy Card plays with the prose in this novel. It's often subtle, but each section is written in a different style that doesn't distract from the plot. The transition from epistolary to cautionary tale to second-person point of view to narrative prose is masterful. The differentiation of style emphasizes the different perspectives and choices made in the Paisley and Solomon household. Each perspective adds an additional layer to the character's personality.

Card plays with reader expectations and breaks them immediately. None of her characters are stereotypes or fall deeply into cliches (neglectful father, cheating Jamaican, self-centered mother, overeducated & ungrateful grandbaby, etc). The ways she shows the reader familial connections and consequences are worth experiencing.

The last section really got me. I'm a sucker for genre shifts. The last section really depicts small-town life in Jamaica and the lasting effects of colonialism & slavery. Card really shows how magic exists for communities.

In the first chapter of These Ghosts Are Family it is revealed that Stan is an imposter, he leveraged the death of his friend (and the racism of his employers) to abandon his family in Jamaica and start afresh in the US. The repercussions of this revelation for his children and wife, who exists from beyond the grave, spiral into a kaleidoscope of family history. This is a beautiful debut novel. It feels in some ways like many novels woven into one, with distinct voices emerging from times in history spanning colonial Jamaica to present day New York. This novel deals with important and unwieldly themes that thread throughout history to present day and which span society, for example, racism, misogyny, abuse, addiction, and trauma. Card handles these themes with poise and empathy. She does so by playing them out via the lens of a family with characters that are just flawed enough so that they are vital and real. Indeed I was so invested in learning what happened to them that the larger themes flowered effortlessly alongside. Unfortunately, and embarrassingly, I was ignorant of much of the historical context of this novel, but it spurred me to do some research of my own. As with most important times in history their ripples can still be felt today, and if we are to avoid making the same mistakes again, we must look backward while moving forward. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book. Thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing me with an ARC.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for the review copy.


“Let’s say that you are a sixty-nine-year-old Jamaican man called Stanford, or Stan for short, who once faked your own death.”


That line pulled me into the book and it never let me go. Y’all already know my favorite saying…so here it goes. This book SNATCHED my edges! Someone call Sally’s Beauty and get me some edge control! I have so many feelings that I cannot formulate into something that makes sense. Wow! 

Stanford Solomon is in fact Abel Paisley. Overwhelmed with the responsibilities of his old life, Stanford saw this lie to start over and create a new life. No one knows his secret but his wife. The best way to describe this book is like a building. The foundation starts with Abel, but the story is not necessarily centered around him. Each character provides a brick that creates this complete structure. And because there are several characters, it is easy to lose track of who is who (SO PAY ATTENTION). I was drawn to the Jamaican history weaved through the book and at times it read as if I was sitting in the kitchen listening to my in-laws who are from Jamaica talking.

The story takes us through slavery, migration, revenge, infidelity and generational trauma. Maisy brought the fire with this one, and sis singed my edges right off my damn scalp. So with that being said, when March 3rd comes…..GO GET IT, READ IT, and then come talk to me.

This book ticked off a lot of boxes that make a book special. Its originality was off the charts. The women in this story were expertly drawn. It took a while for me to get into this though. The dialect was so far from anything I've read before, and I'm usually a fan of reading with the dialogue intact for the times. This however bogged me down until I found it's rhythm. I see why all the hype surrounds it.

I feel as though I’m standing ankle deep in the ocean and I see a huge wave coming my way but I’m rooted to the spot.
I’m unable to run, god help my swimming abilities, all I can do is hope it crests before it hits me fully.
Nope, turns out I’m going for this ride. Full speed ahead, boogie board at the ready. This is how it felt reading this book. With every turn of the page I was rolling in the water and diving into the unknown. I had a semblance of what I was getting into and upon completing it I’m still shaken in a way.
As a Black American myself I have always been interested in my family’s history and our roots. It’s harder for us to pinpoint our ancestry due to slavery and there’s also the fact that my maternal grandfather was adopted and accounts over the years get muddled.
This book to me is wondrous because it’s the history of an entire bloodline and the focal point is not just one person.
It showcases the ugly, the good, the humanity, and the fragility of life and family.
Family isn’t perfect because people aren’t perfect. It’s downright hideous and most of the time life does not have a happy ending. It just doesn’t.
These Ghosts Are Family starts with a man named Stanford Solomon who in actuality is not Stanford Solomon. He is really Abel Paisley and he faked his death years ago and stole the identity of his best friend.
He is at the end of his life and is about to meet the daughter he abandoned years ago, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has no idea what she is about to walk into.
The story then spirals from Abel’s actions and tells the story from colonial Jamaica to present day Harlem.
From there we trek down a family tree of this fractured family and their trauma and ghosts.
I think I gave you my impression of this in the first few paragraphs but wow, this was a read.
It immediately pulls you in and doesn’t let you go until the very end.
It’s not just the account of one person either. From Vera, Abel’s first wife, to Debbie a white distant ancestor and back to the slavery days...
There are ghosts, there is love, death, and the prose is both cruel and beautiful.
At the end of it all the bloodlines are muddy but clear, just like all of ours. Nothing in the world is pristine and it’s not meant to be.
Maisy Card has written a phenomenal novel executed beautifully and told in the format of an intricate spider web.
Each strand tells a story just waiting to be told.

A man steals another man's identity and lives a whole new life over decades. What happens to his first family and how do his actions shape their lives? Maisy Card's debut novel is bursting with the stories of all the people touched by Abel Paisley's split second decision to become Solomon Stanford. She skillfully weaves all the stories together and lets the lives of so many bleed out on to the pages. You won't like all the characters, but you will be drawn into their stories nonetheless.

Stories like this always make me think about the decisions we make and how they affect others. There are so many paths we could all walk down throughout our lives - whose path did we affect and what did it mean? Card doesn't pull punches. There are some ugly things in this books, but the characters feel real and raw so taht you can't help but feel their pain, sorrow, and joy.

This will be one of the best of 2020. Highly recommended.

There were so many moving parts to this book. I loved every minute of it. I was so bummed out when it ended. Congrats to this author for writing a phenomenal book.

These Ghosts Are Family is a really stunning multi-generational saga about a Jamaican family. It's a powerful and ambitious debut novel.

The story begins with Stanford Solomon. He's an elderly man who has hired a home health aide and brings her into his house with his daughter and granddaughter. He has a story to tell all three women. For, you see, Stanford is really Abel Paisley and the home health aide is his daughter from him first marriage. Abel faked his own death and took his friend's place. It was a planned deception, but when the opportunity arose Abel took it: "You almost laugh now when you think of it--the one time racism worked in your favor. The captain had gotten his wogs confused, looked you right in the eye and mistook you for the other black guy." Abel becomes Stanford and leaves behind a "widow," Vera, and two children. 

The story moves back and forth in time, from colonial Jamaica, to the early days of Abel's first marriage, to present-day New York. It's almost more a collection of related short stories. We see Abel in the early 1960s, stuck in an unhappy marriage with Vera. Neither is what the other expected when they wed, and Card beautifully evokes their misery. I enjoyed some sections more than others, but all of them were interesting.

The book has hints of magical realism with occasional mentions of ghosts, but it goes full magical realism in the final section, and I'm not sure that it really worked. It felt very different in tone from the rest of the book. I'm planning to reread the ending to see if I'm just missing something. But everything else about the book worked for me, and it's a really impressive debut novel.

In this family saga all is not as it seems, and there is more than one ghost to be discovered. Stanford Solomon’s secret to be shared is like a bombshell going off in an abandoned house of their family tree, shaking loose debris and dust long ignored. Stanford is actually Abel Paisely and has a second family who believes him to be dead. The novel explores the secrets that the family hides, and the ghosts of these secrets that are interwoven into the fabric of their family’s makeup.
It is unlike any family drama I have read before. These Ghosts takes many unexpected twists and turns, leaving the reader guessing what is to come next. I really felt challenged and motivated as a reader to piece the puzzle together along with the characters; to come to understand a fuller picture of this family and all the circumstances leading to Solomon’s secret.
Maisy Card expertly utilizes change in narration for each chapter, showing the reader the various identities, backgrounds, and personalities wrapped up into the family. I loved the interspersed allusions to ghosts throughout the novel. These are not the specters of scary stories, but rather ghosts, memories, and spirits that live on through family lineage, even when attempts are made to erase them from history. These ghosts are hungry beings, clinging tightly on to the family’s story in unexpected ways. Card, in this fashion, is analyzing the often told story of the dysfunctional family at the microscopic, genetic level, making you as the reader question: could this story play out in any other way?

BIG thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me an early copy of this book! It will be published March 3rd, and you can pre-order it here.

These Ghosts Are Family is the kind of debut that will leave your jaw on the floor. Maisy Card has woven an incredible tapestry across generations and geography. The author herself grew up in a family built on a mountain of secrets never revealed, which inspired her to write this story. And wow.

The premise starts thus: A man (now) named Stanford Solomon decides to reveal his true identity to his remaining family. He was born in Jamaica as Abel Paisley before faking his death and assuming a new identity to escape his previous life and start another. We get an intro to a few of his family members. Then the next chapter jumps backward in time to before he left Jamaica, and then we spring forward and back and forward and back, from the 1800s to 2020, learning a little bit more about this family’s history and secrets with every turn of the page.

Almost every chapter has a bit of a different format, as the author uses timing, perspective, and point of view to pull the story’s strings. And what starts feeling like a character study on Abel/Stanford and the people closest to him turns into a giant puzzle as we, the readers, attempt to figure out how all these people from across time fit together.

The book is also a love story to Jamaica — its beauty and its pain. All the dialogue is written in Jamaican Patois. We dive deep into the ugliness of slavery on the island and feel its lasting effects. And, of course, there are the ghosts. (Don’t finish this book in the middle of the night, as I did.) By the end, I was reading faster and faster, and my heart was racing.

If you find yourself getting lost or disconnected when a story bounces between characters, timeframes, and settings — especially when it doesn’t move linearly — then this might be tough for you. But if you stick it out, I think it will be very worth it.

Maisy Card’s heart and skill ring throughout the novel. Her use of language is pristine. Her ability as a storyteller is gripping. And her characters will stay with me for a long time.

I have seen this book all over my bookstagram feed as the pub date approaches and was very excited to be provided with a copy to review. Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me a free ebook copy of These Ghosts Are Family in return for my honest review.

As Stanford Solomon nears the end of his life he finally admits a secret he has kept for 30 plus years of his life, he was born Abel Paisley. The outcome of Stanford's admission takes us through 200 plus years of Jamaican history while we learn more about the Paisley family tree and how choices made impact our futures and our families and in the process, leave a few ghosts behind.

Each chapter of this book is told from a different time period from a different perspective of the Paisley family tree. The stories all connect through the different family members. I enjoyed how how the story being told like this provided a really unique look into not only colonial Jamaican history, but the outcome of immigration to New York City as well. The writing was well done and the characters felt very complex. I liked how each part of the story tied back to the family and filled in a blank we did not yet know or understand. While I enjoyed this book overall, there are two main reasons why I can't give this story more than 3 stars. For one, many of the characters and their story lines felt incomplete. I'm unsure if this was the intent, but as a reader it left me feeling dissatisfied and wanting to know more. Secondly, I did not (and still don't) understand the point of the last chapter. I get how the characters fit, but am confused by the message the chapter was trying to send to me as the reader.

Even though I gave this book 3 stars, I would still recommend it. Know that at times the story is heavy and I had to put it down to give myself a mental break. Don't expect it to be one that you can read quickly, but do expect you will learn and question a lot as you read.

I was expecting SO much from this one - comping it to Homegoing really lifted the bar. I thought it was good, not great or earth-shattering but I'm glad I read it. I thought the family history was the most interesting part and wish it had been the focus of the whole novel and not just the second half.

When writing a book review, how can you leave your feelings out of the rating ? Isn't the scoring based on how the author, characters and plot made you feel? Truth be told Maisy left me sooo deep in my feelings, that I feel like I need to watch TV for like A WEEK! Was the book good ? Yes. Did it have me sitting on the edge of my seat at the end of each page? Meh. Was I jumping out of my seat when some of THE MOST RANDOM things happened? Yes, but my reaction was more of a "Why Jesus?!" than a "OMG, I can't believe that just happened".


The story begins with the confession of an old man who faked his death and assumed the life of a childhood friend to escape the unhappy life he had with his first wife. The confession is made to his two daughters and his granddaughter. After that confession, the story follows a series of characters across a few generations which was cute, but it also made me feel like I was on a tour bus where the potholes in the street just kept getting bigger and bigger. A lot of connections were made, which was GREAT! Imagine finding out your wife is a direct descendant of the planters that owned your great great great great grandmother during the 1800s (talk about lifetime bondage!!). But I ended up wanting more from characters that didn't necessarily need time on stage. The tea that was spilled, although it was hydrating, it wasn't enough in any one area. So, in a nutshell, I enjoyed These Ghosts are Family, but I wanted more! Maisy gave the world one hell of a debut novel! There wasn't a dull moment anywhere in sight, so I'm excited to see what she brings in future.

Special thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing via NetGalley an Advance Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review

This is one of those books that tempts you to call in sick to work so you can just read it all day. I was completely engrossed in the story from the first page and the writing is exquisite. This riveting story spans several generations and occurs in at least three different countries. It is the story of a family and how the past shapes the present and future. The descriptive writing transported me to times and places I have never been. Though book deals with heavy topics such as infidelity, slavery, racism, and drug use, I didn't find it a depressing read. There is a large cast of characters and it was difficult to keep them all straight at times, but that did not detract from my reading experience. This ambitious debut will definitely turn out to be one of the best novels of 2020.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Maisy Card for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

Summary: When the novel opens, we meet Stanford Solomon, a man living in Jamaica near the end of his life. Stanford’s guilt over something he did in his past is catching up with him. With his wife recently deceased, Stanford decides to confess a huge secret to his partially estranged family: he is not Stanford Solomon. Long ago, he seized an opportunity to change his life by abandoning his real identity, his much hated job, and his first family, when the real Stanford Solomon was killed.

As the stories of Solomon and his family unfold, we learn that he’s not the only one with secrets. This is a family of flawed people, who are just trying to survive. One daughter is a heroin addict and the other works in New York as home health care worker, struggling to raise two kids alone. His first wife had an affair and an abortion.

Meanwhile, another woman is about to get a shock. After signing up for a DNA website, Debbie’s father gives her his her great-great-great-great grandfather’s journal. Harold Fowler owned a plantation in Jamaica in the 1800’s. Her ancestors once owned the ancestors of of people she’s never met — Stanford Solomon (aka Able Paisley) and his family. She also realizes that they are distant cousins. She finds the emotionally detached and violent information in Harold’s journal to be very disturbing. She can’t get the images out of her head.

In a non-linear style, the author continues to reveal more about the history of both families, drawing the reader deeper into the Jamaican culture and the ongoing effects of slavery.

Comments: This was not an fast and easy book to read. Aside from the dialect (which I would have loved to hear in an audio format), the book jumps between various voices and timelines. I had to slow down my usual reading speed, or risk missing things.

These Ghosts are Family shook me out of my white, urban comfort zone and gave me a emotionally complex glimpse into Jamaican history and culture.

Recommended for book clubs and discussion groups, readers of Literary Fiction and those interested in Jamaican history, culture and slavery.

My Rating: 4 STARS

I really enjoyed this book. The writing was captivating and each character jumped off the pages. I loved the interweaving of some of the supernatural elements because so many families have these kinds of stories in their family lore. The family tree at the beginning was helpful as well!

This book sounded so good but it just fell flat for me. The writing was wonderful but the story never went anywhere. There were too many characters and they didn't really intertwine with each other. It was just a rambling of their stories with no connection.

As a person of color and of Caribbean ancestry, I was immediately interested in this book. The fact that Stanford Solomon was harboring this thirty-year old secret about his identity was WILD. Maisy Card's ability to shift between present day Harlem and colonial Jamaica is brilliant. I loved the way she afforded the reader the ability to view a situation from the various perspectives of the individuals involved. So much of the book broke my heart and also provided a backstory to characters I had initially written off. I cannot wait until this book is published as I would LOVE to hear the perspectives of others and their thoughts particularly at the end.

Overall, some memorables quotes from the book for me where:

"Though she always told Vera her nose was too broad, her hair a little too kinky to pass as she did, if she let the relaxer sit in her hair until it burned, if she stayed out of the sun, if she displayed the right manners, the right poise, if she inserted her white grandfather in enough conversations and forgot all of her ancestors on the others branches came from slaves, she would rise above her blackness".

This quote had me SO DEEP in my feelings, particularly the relaxer part. I was immediately reminded of when my mother relaxed my hair one weekend before my second grade class pictures. Yes, second grade! I remember the burning of the relaxer and how she told me I had to sit so that my hair would look "pretty". Of course I wanted to look pretty so I sat and sat as that relaxer completely tore through my hair and burned my scalp.

"But we all have to know our history, Debbie. Even if you come from the bad guys."

This quote reminded me of how painful, but necessary it is to know your history. To understand where you came from and how it has shaped you in ways you may not even realize. Doing the work is never easy, but I think it is important to understand that we must come to terms with our history in its entirety, especially the parts that make us uncomfortable.

Wow. "These Ghosts Are Family" is a fantastic novel! I decided to give this a chance even though I have a love/hate relationship with historical fiction. I must admit, this is the best I've read in that genre so far. I absolutely enjoyed every second of reading this, well expect the last chapter (got a little too magical realism for my taste). It's hard to believe this is Maisy Card's debut novel. Her writing is flawless. The prose was funny, moving, and vibrant. The characters really exploded off the page. Some people are complaining about the dialogue, but I didn't find it hard to understand. This book touches on some sensitive subject matter such as racism, enslavement, psychical and sexual abuse, abortion, drug addiction, trauma, and death. Even though the dark moments are what makes this book memorable and powerful, there's also some lighter moments that will stick with you as well. I didn't mind the non-linear format, I thought it added tension and drama to the overall story. This one took me by surprise. Such an unexpected gem. An intense and gripping family saga. Highly recommended!

Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC.

Release date: March 3, 2020

This was a very unique book, with a different writing style. While this writing style may not be for everyone, it wasn’t for me, the story is lovely. The history and past is interwoven to compose the family that we meet. I loved the descriptions of Jamaica and the political conflicts. That was definitely something I haven’t read about before. It was difficult for me to follow the writing when it was written in the phonetic accent. ⁣
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If you’re interested in family sagas and historical fictions that are rich and poetic, you would enjoy this. ⁣