This isn’t usually a genre that I read but I have heard so much about Dolly Alderton, I was curious about her work. I did struggle with the first half of the book as I found the characters laboured and two dimensional at times. However, I was glad I persevered as the relationship between Nina and her father is very moving. The heartbreak portrayed over the gradual loss of a parent to dementia feels real and it is deftly handled by Alderton. Nina and her mum react differently to the idea of becoming carers and Alderton shows that this is both normal and natural. I also appreciated that the term ‘ghosting’ did not just refer to Nina’s romantic relationships and it could also be applied to her father’s fading memories, or the deterioration of childhood friendships. I was less convinced by Nina’s love life, but overall this was an enjoyable read from a debut fiction book.

I haven’t read anything by this author before, and I knew this was her first fictional book so wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. It wasn’t exactly as I expected but I still enjoyed it. The characters came to life and the book flowed and was a very pleasant lockdown read.

Having read (and loved!) Dolly's non-fiction debut 'Everything I Know About Love', this, her fiction debut, was high on my most looking forward to reads of 2020. I really wasn't disappointed. Dolly has an astute eye when it comes to the intricacies of socialising and dating, and a dry observational style when it comes to utilising these tropes to scathing effect. 32-year-old Nina is a food writer on the rise, her successful blog allowed her to leave teaching and write full-time. She has the kind of life that looks great from a distance, through the illuminated screen of a phone, but is falling apart in reality. Having taken a break from dating, after a mutually decided break-up with her boyfriend of many years, she decides to give dating apps a try. But the dramas that arise from there, her father's worsening health, her worsening relationship with her mother and her splintering friendships are beginning to consume her.
Because of Dolly's shifting from memoir to fiction, it took me a little while to acclimatise to 'Ghosts'. Nina is very different physically and her romantic history, based on what Dolly recounts in EIKAL is vastly different from Nina's. Once I'd adjusted, I became consumed by Nina's immensely relatable story. I'm slightly younger than Nina, being in my late 20s, but reading this felt like I was seeing both my present life and prophesied future in one-go. Having already felt the divide between my single self and coupled-up friends beginning to take a toll, there was something compelling, hypnotic and mildly terrifying at seeing it presented here. Also, as someone who has had encounters like the romance within this novel, it all felt vaguely reassuring - that I am not alone in my experiences of the car crash existence that is a third-life crisis.
As with EIKAL, there were regularly chunks of Dolly's prose that I would highlight and make notes off - such was their extent of aching poignancy and reliability. This is a novel that is often funny, regularly bittersweet and .totally engrossing.

Having read 'Everything I Know About Love', Dolly Alderton's memoir, I didn't quite know what to expect from her debut novel.

The characters are likable and relatable, and their storylines weave through the book with ease and humour. The relationships between characters feel incredibly real and I was engaged by them from the first page. The friendships and familial relationships have a great deal of depth, sensitively exploring the topics of love, friendship and parenthood at all of its various stages.

As a woman in my mid twenties, I felt engulfed by Nina's world and Alderton's brilliant writing. The novel made me smile, laugh, feel deep sadness and also really surprised me in places.

'Ghosts' is sensitive, beautiful but also hilarious, taking you on a journey with Nina and slowly revealing the different forms of ghosts and ghosting that affect her life. Since reading 'Everything I Know About Love', I had been patiently anticipating Alderton's next book and this is a triumph. I will read it again and it has proven her talent and skill as a storyteller and writer.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book was such a quick read, the words flowed so well, I couldn’t put it down. I could really relate to the main character and shared a lot of her core beliefs - I guess that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I think many women go through the same issues this book deals with, fair or unfair - it’s all about life and is written so honestly. Who wouldn’t live this book?

Nina George Dean (and the George is important) is a 32 year old food writer, who starts dating using online apps for the first time, after the end of a long relationship. As the title would suggest, she is ghosted after the passionate start of a relationship with Max, and at the same time, other aspects of her life start to unravel, as friendships change with marriage and babies, and her parents deal with her father’s dementia.

There has been a glut of recent excellent books about navigating the territory of your thirties, and Ghosts does cover similar thematic ground to Expectation by Anna Hope, Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth, and Pretending by Holly Bourne, but that is not a criticism. Alderton brings her own psychological insights, wisdom and her brand of high-low cultural references to the subject matter.

The relationships between all the characters are well depicted, and Alderton succeeds in creating older characters that don’t succumb to ‘humorous’ stereotypes. The dementia storyline is clearly well researched and sensitively handled. In fact, my only criticism of the book would be perhaps that this is where Alderton’s obvious research shows through the writing with occasional clunkiness. But it’s no less enjoyable for it.

Alderton has been compared to Nora Ephron, who if you listen to her podcasts, is clearly one of her influences. This shone through for me, in the evocation of place, the depiction of the heady hopefulness of the start of a love affair, while still managing to retain a cynical sense of humour which had me laughing out loud. Relatable and emotional, topped off with a bittersweet and satisfying ending which is entirely fitting, I loved this novel and can’t wait to discuss it with my friends.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for the opportunity to read and review what surely must be the most hotly anticipated debut novel of 2020.

I hadn't read anything by Dolly Alderton before but I'd heard great things about 'Everything I Know About Love' so when I heard about her fiction debut I knew I needed to try it! I love Dolly's voice, it's so wonderfully British which as someone who reads so much American based fiction was refreshing. There was quite a lot of heavy swearing so if that's not your thing be wary (but that's what you get for being British I guess). I loved the different aspects of ghosting that were covered from dating, to friendships fading, and to dementia and the ghosting of memories. It was such a poignant read. I enjoyed this book immensely but I just couldn't get invested, it took me quite a while to get through as I only found myself reading a chapter at a time so hence the reason for my lower rating but I think I'm slightly younger than the target audience for this book so that's potentially why but I'd say if you are older and single you'll definitely see a lot of yourself here, I'm young and single and I definitely did. It made made me think a lot about the future.

I absolutely loved this novel. Joining Nina as she navigated her way through life in her early 30's felt so relatable.

Nina is a successful food writer but is struggling in other parts of her life and what the landscape of her life looks like in her early 30's. Initially it seems as though the main plot line will be about her struggle with dating and using dating apps, however as you read on more threads are introduced such as the change of friendships over time as peoples lives accelerate at different speeds, her relationship with her mother as they try and cope with her fathers worsening dementia, her relationship with her father as he starts to deteriorate and eventually starts to forget who she is.

I thought this book was beautifully written, it's heartfelt, sensitive and the characters have a depth to them that make you really care. I felt like I went on a real journey with Nina as she worked out what was most important to her and how she needed to shift her focus to appreciate everything she maybe had all along.

I love the title and as you move through the book finding out how many different types of ghost/ghosting Nina endures/ discovers.

I would highly recommend this to all of my friends and am a bit sad I finished it so quickly! Dolly Alderton has been a favourite writer of mine for a while and this has firmly cemented her at the top of my list.

I was excited to read this book and it did not disappoint. The story was so current and relevant to life for women today, showing with humour and heart the struggles women in their 30s face in all of the relationships in their life. It was great to read about a strong, successful, self made women who navigates these struggles with her friends, family and beau’s, that didn’t finish with the usual cliche ending. It was charming, witty and honest, with laugh out loud moments and a few tears. I could have happily continued to read about Nina and those in her life for many more hours. Thank you netgalley!!

A great debut novel from Dolly Alderton. Ghosts is exactly what you’d expect it to be, Alderton prizes friendships above romantic relationships, but also highlights the importance of hope in love. The descriptive power Alderton has is so immersive and is what makes this book. Nina’s heartbreak in watching her father’s deterioration, but also her acceptance of who he becomes, how the shared memories will always be there and his soul will not change is lovely.
It’s a fantastic novel, if you listen to Dolly’s podcast you can see her completely in this book. It is utterly her. Ghosts is good but there’s also room for growth and development. The first of many fictional books from Alderton I hope.

I really enjoyed this book and read it really quickly - Dolly is a droll and observant writer and it was easy to eat this up.
The first section of the book feels a little forced - we're not given much space to get introduced to Nina, there's a lot of telling and not showing about who she is.

So this is very exciting, for the first time I have been gifted a book in exchange for an honest review. I say the first time because I’m really hoping this happens again, so thank you Penguin and Netgalley for giving the opportunity to do this! Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll probably have seen or heard of Dolly Alderton because of her old columns or her memoir Everything I Know About Love. I read her memoir earlier this year and absolutely loved it, so when I saw that she had a debut novel coming out I was psyched!

Ghosts focuses on the phenomenon of ghosting when dating, alongside the almost ghostly illness that is Dementia. The story follows Nina Dean, a woman in her 30s as she explores the realm of online dating as her friends are all attempting to settle down and seem to be more and more distant, and her father is starting to suffer with Dementia. Immediately I was hooked on the premise, Alderton’s humour mixed with some really emotional issues? Sign me up!

When I picked it up it didn’t take long for me to start laughing, if you’ve read Everything I Know About Love, you’ll be able to see where Dolly Alderton shines through with her humour and observations about friendship and dating. The romance aspect is good, and if you’ve ever been on dating apps you’re probably familiar with the concept of ghosting, having been ghosted or been the ghost. The dating aspect of the book was good, it was like even though you knew from the premise that he would disappear you still wanted it to not happen! I think that it was interesting to see the fallout of the relationship as well and see how both characters were flawed within it, both imaging a version of the other like the Ariana Grande lyric goes “Painted a picture, I thought I knew you well”. In fact thinking about it now, I think in my head could actually be the perfect song to describe their relationship.

When I say this book had me laughing, I do genuinely mean it, there were times where I was laughing out loud. Purely because it can be so relatable, funnily and painfully. I wasn’t far in when I came across the quote “The very best version of a piece of work was when it was still just an idea and therefore perfect.” and I laughed because it is so relatable to me, somebody who wants to write books but hates writing them because I lose interest as soon as I get to a bit I deem ‘boring’. When you’re reading Ghosts there will be points where you relate to the things Nina thinks or does, or even the things her friends do. It’s awkward at times, and so painfully real, and I think that is a blend that Alderton does fantastically.

Although I don’t want to compare the two books too much, in Everything I Know About Love Alderton reflects on how most of what she knows about love has come from her female friendships, and I think this also shines through in Ghosts. It is a theme that is clearly important, with the friendships that Nina has being written so well, from the little things that irk her about her friends, to the friendship break ups that she experiences. As someone who has experienced a couple of friendship break ups it was so nice to see one done really well, how the little frustrations build up over time to erupt. Break ups are something Alderton writes well about, with her recounting how Nina and her ex broke up as well, and I loved it because it was so good to see an amicable break up and exes be really close friends. So often there is a demonisation of exes, and I liked the subtle reinforcement that it is okay to be friends with an ex, and with their new partner (even if Alderton does also write the awkwardness that can come with that).

I think the thing that truly stands out to me about Alderton’s work is the writing on dynamics. She clearly thinks a lot about the dynamics of friendship and how they change over the years, with people getting into relationships/getting married/having children. And it’s fascinating to read about what she thinks, because sometimes I read it thinking “that’s so true!”. As we get older we do change and the things we’re interested in change, so reading Alderton’s takes on friendship group politics etc is fascinating to me, and it’s something she also incorporates into dating, although I still think it shines through best when discussing friendship.

The portrayal of Dementia was also very well done. My nan has Dementia to the point where she no longer recognises any of the family, but reading about Nina’s dad experiencing the early stages of Dementia really took me back to when my nan first started to experience Dementia, although I was not around for most of it. It was good to see how Alderton portrayed it well and how it affected Nina and her mother in different ways, she didn’t shy away from writing about how hard it can be for others, which is an incredibly important part of Dementia. It was heartbreaking, but it is very real and important for those that have not experienced the pain of it in order to understand how to help people that may be experiencing it.

I think one of the underlying themes that was done extremely well was that you never know what’s going on in someone else’s life, I know it’s stereotypical and very obvious but at the same time it is so true and done so well. As the novel goes on you realise more and more that everyone is putting up facades of who they want to be/seeing other people as the facade they’re given and it doesn’t take long for those facades to crack. Whether it’s the neighbour, the boyfriend, the friends or her mum, everyone in Nina’s life including herself is putting up a facade and trying to pretend they’re fine when there’s a lot going on beneath the surface, everyone wants to seem perfect. These cracks appear so often and eventually they all crumble so that you get a nice resolution where people talk to each other, and I loved it. I keep saying that, but it is genuinely true, I do love this book and I think Alderton definitely does what she aimed to do.

I think the only things that I didn’t like was the few errors I noticed on the kindle edition with spacing, although I’m sure that is just because it is an ARC and not the retail version yet. I also wished a few more things had happened like a confrontation with Max, although I did enjoy the substitute we got instead, other than that there was nothing I could really fault it on and I really liked the journey that Nina went through, and how she feels at the end.

I’d really recommend that you preorder this, or pick it up when it comes out because it is really worth it and I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I did! It’s genuinely funny and a breath of fresh air, and I genuinely think that it can help you understand dating and friendships better.

Love,
Carey

Seeing I couldn’t review on Amazon, I’ll review here.
It’s a story about a Woman in her Thirty’s trying online dating app for the first time.
This story is current with today’s settings and the language is raw so expect swear words. I love the plot line of the story and the twists along the way. It isn’t a book just based on dating but also family and friends.
I felt for Nina Dean (main character) all through the book. Like I could relate to her especially one thing no body but my mum knows, that you actually wrote about.
The story also talks in great detail about Nina’s Dad who has dementia and you researched well on the topic, as I use to work in a care home and seen it first hand what a dementia victim how they suffer and also how the immediate family suffer to see a love one go through this.
I don’t want to ruin the story for others so Trying not o let to much out. But this story has a lot to give it’s readers tears,laughter and appreciation of what you have in your life.
What the book lets me take away after reading is, you don’t need to be a relationship all you need in your life is Family and friends, and if a relationship happens then it’s a bonus.
Dolly Alderton please write a sequel, need to know a few things!
Ps I loved the Margaret Thatcher quote with a difference!
Think I’ll be looking at what other books Dolly has wrote.

There is a line between auto fiction and self insert fan fiction, but the line is not that thin and it should be entirely possible to avoid the latter in your debut novel.

Absolutely fell in love with this! Really thought it was a modern look at dating for a modern woman. Plus the story was engaging. Dolly is a great writer and that really shines through in this.

Unlike most of the other reviewers, I wasn’t overly familiar with Dolly Alderton before reading Ghosts. I don’t listen to her podcast and I haven’t read her memoir, therefore I wasn’t sure that she would be my cup of tea (although I knew that she has an army of devoted fans who are eagerly anticipating this novel).

I was very pleasantly surprised by Ghosts. It’s more cynical than I expected (in a good way!) and very dryly funny. Plotwise there are no massive shocks but her writing is excellent and her observations about dating and being surrounded by friends who only want to talk about their babies etc were perfect. I also liked the subplot about the protagonist’s dad who is struggling with dementia.

It is similar in tone to Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth and Expectation by Anna Hope, so if you liked either of those novels then you’ll probably love this. Overall, Ghosts exceeded my expectations and I will be reading her memoir soon.

Loved, loved, loved this! A sharp, funny, heartbreaking page turner of a tale. The observations on dating, friendship and families is spot on. I was grateful that, although there is a happy ending, it is not full on Mills and Boon, and there is acceptance that one's life may be different from what everyone and you expected, but that does not make it wrong, it is just different.
Go out and read it now!

I thought this book was exceptional. It made me laugh and cry in equal amounts. I found the parts about ghosting particularly relatable but the part that affected me emotionally was the story about Bill and his battle with dementia. I found his story to be heartbreakingly sad but his decline was so beautifully written and the illness is so misunderstood that I felt that his was an important story to be told.

This book packed so much more than I expected. I'd started off expecting the storyline to simply follow 32 year old food writer, Nina, through the highs and lows of dating in your 30s. It did. That part of the book was OK...

What I really loved about this book however was the focus on her "other" relationships.

Nina's family situation was written with so much warmth and realism. Watching her and her mother both respond to her father's illness in such different ways was such a stark reminder of my own fathers terminal illness and how different loved ones coping behaviours can be. (I actually had a quick google to see if the author had lost a parent, as it just felt so very real!).

Seeing how Nina's relationship with her oldest girlfriend was stretched and strained as their lives headed in different directions felt like a subject rarely touched on but keenly felt by so many women of a similar age. I think this is actually the first book I've ever read that explored this theme - seems odd not to have come across it before.

Finally, if I wasnt sold already, the cover Illustration is 👌!

Every once in a while along comes a book that everyone should read and Ghosts is one such book. Honest, perceptive, poignant and more than that, amidst all the pain, gloriously funny. A proper laugh out loud book. Just brilliant.