Dolly Alderton writes like a dream. I adored Everything I Know About Love and the accompanying podcast was also amazing. She is easy to listen to and easy to read and I don't mean that in a dumbing down way. I mean that it's a bit like sitting with one of your mates chatting and not realising where the time has gone. I was curious to see how this style would translate into a novel, but she has done it wonderfully. I absolutely devoured Ghosts. I read it in a day and was sad when it finished. It will undoubtedly be labelled as whatever the modern day equivalent of chick lit is, but this does it (and a lot of other books like it) a huge disservice. There is nothing wrong with tackling big issues in an intensely readable way and this is what Alderton does. Nina Dean is a great protagonist. She is a woman who is bright, independent and who stands in her own power, but she still wants love and connection, both with a partner and her friends and family. It becomes harder and harder to juggle these needs as time progresses and we root for Nina as she deals with disastrous dating, her ageing parents and the friends who are leaving her behind as they marry and settle down. I have made this sound mundane and it really isn't. It's empathetic and warm and thoughtful and I rather loved it.

I absolutely loved this. I've read Alderton's EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE twice, and have loved it just as much on both reads. My hopes for this novel were high and I wasn't disappointed. Alderton's writing was beautifully descriptive and I devoured the novel in 2 days.

My only criticism is that certain events throughout the novel tended to happen rather quickly and were sometimes omitted. I can see why some things weren't included (e.g. moving inside to a bar), but others I would have preferred more detail on. E.g. at the start of M and Nina's relationship, I wanted more description and information on how they spent time together. I hoped it would come later but I was left on tenterhooks!

That's my only criticism, though. I'd really recommend this novel, and - no spoilers - the end brought me a lot of joy.

*thanks to Netgalley and Penguin UK for the advanced copy in exchange for this review

Centred around millennial and food writer Nina, Ghosts looks at the landscape of life in your thirties. That life can be summarised as a loss of friendships, a dwindling pool of eligible bachelors, and a revised look at your life as your expectations haven’t been met quite yet. After her break up with long term partner Joe, Nina downloads dating app Linx to help her find love, as she’s feeling the pressure as she’s one of the last singles she knows apart from her friend Lola.

This book delicately looks at the feelings of responsibility and relationships - in dating, friendships and family territories. It is a heartfelt and emotionally challenging story to read but it’s got a rawness and a vulnerability to it. There’s witty and astute comments woven into the narrative, and a plethora of relatable observations made by Nina. I found myself empathising with her and Lola’s tales of modern dating, being caught up in the more nostalgic elements as Nina reflects on her life and choices she’s made. It’s a story of love - modern dating, female friendships, and the enduring and sometimes not ideal love we build with our family.


As the title suggests, this is a story about being ghosted. Ghosted by love interests who disappear thanks to the digital era dating scene where your paths never really have to cross. The ghosts of old friendships and differing life choices and the judgement that comes with the decisions made by someone you thought was so similar, and how your life differs from theirs. And also in this novel, ghosts of the past - as Nina’s dad is suffering with Dementia - and her relationship with her parents suffers as a result, especially with her mum who is struggling to see her husband slip away.

There’s a richness and depth to the characters, and a charm that comes with exploring human emotions and the psyche that Dolly Alderton has done so well. It’s thoughtful, emotional and at times laugh out loud funny. I thought I’d be disappointed by the ending as things appeared to be resolved easily, but I wasn’t - I was charmed, it was great that Nina finally got something good (or realised she had it good all along).

Ghosting, eh, ladies? What's that about then, amirite? Thank God I'm not straight. Though admittedly in my one relationship with a man, he did manage to ghost me, so I'm not entirely innocent about this reprehensible modern practice which needs to get in the sea.

Like me, Dolly Alderton's protagonist Nina Dean uses a lot of fifty-dollar words. She praises her editor's 'didacticism' and sees her dinners out as 'culinary excursions.' Instead of 'I can't get enough' she says 'An abundance wouldn't satiate me.' I wasn't sure I could keep going with all this, but then thankfully the emotions kicked in and the adjectives calmed down.

As in her millennial memoir, where she writes far more beautifully about the death of her best friend's little sister than anything else, Alderton's writing is at its strongest when she is talking about grief - loss of friendships, a dementing parent and, of course, being ghosted. It's not particularly uplifting and treads such familiar territory it can't really be called original, but like the author's non-fiction writing, it manages to be more than the sum of its parts.

Dolly Alderton is such a great modern writer, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, observations and dialogue in Ghosts, her debut fiction novel. It was a very entertaining, multi-layered and thought provoking read.

Many thanks to Penguin, to Ms Alderton and to NetGalley efforts allowing me to read and review this excellent book.

Ever since Dolly Alderton announced she was writing a debut fiction novel over a year ago I was desperate to read it. Everything Dolly writes I adore and this was no exception!

Nina is a 32 year old single teacher turned food writer and has just joined the dating world of online. dating. We follow her journey trying to decipher this minefield of dating which is all too familiar for us millennials.

I really related to the character of Nina and was absorbed with the story right away, she came across as such a compelling female lead character. She was well balanced, strong yet flawed, successful yet questioned her career commitments and the holy grail of relationships managed to maintain a strong relationship with her ex boyfriend (something that many strive for, yet fail to accomplish!)

Dollys writing is beautiful, there is a rawness in the way she conveys many different relationships, yet delivers them with such detail and humour. I enjoyed how the title of this book describes a lot more than what is just on the surface, not only is it about Max from the dating app ghosting her but also the ghost of her father before his dementia, the ghost of her best friend now pre occupied with her family and the ghost of her previous long term relationship.

This book was so much more than your typical rom com, it delved into heartbreaking detail about dementia with Nina’s father and how hard this can be to accept not only by a daughter by also by a partner. Seeing dementia first hand within my family I thought this was handled sensitively and even led me to shed a few tears at the delicate way Dolly drew the book to a close.

I would really recommend this book, it was enjoyable, heartbreaking and a pleasure to read. I can’t wait until October to add this book to my already full to bursting shelves!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Penguin General Uk & Fig Tree for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I want to say up top, I love Dolly Alderton's "Everything I know About Love" and I was excited to hear about her first work of fiction, Ghosts, and even more delighted that I got an advanced copy to read and review.

As always, Dolly Alderton's writing is poignant, evocative and relatable and I got swept away into the story quickly and I managed to finish this within a day (although I very much never wanted to finish it because I enjoyed it so much).

Our protagonist is Nina Dean, newly-turned 32 year old former English Teacher turned food author. We follow Nina through her 32nd year of life, and all the paths it takes her down and some that it returns her to. We see Nina take steps forward and back at the same time. It's very real (sometimes unflinchingly so) but the attention to detail on the most painful of emotions really made me invested in Nina and her family and friends and I found them easy to imagine and relate to as if they were my own, which is a testament to Dolly's writing.

It's a story about love, in all forms, and covers how all kinds - fragile, strong, fleeting and unconditional - can look, and how all those types of love impact us on the daily and over the course of our lives.

I'm honoured I didn't have to wait until October to read this and I can't wait to read more from Dolly Alderton.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I am a big fan of Dolly Alderton's book Everything I Know About Love and was looking forward to reading her debut novel and I wasn't disappointed.

I'm probably not in her target audience as I'm a bit older than her protaganist Nina, but I can appreciate the trials and tribulations of a woman in her 30's and having to navigate the online dating scene.

What I like about Dolly's writing style is her ability to delve deep into human emotions and not just keep her books light and fluffy. Nina's father's decline due to dementia tugged at my heartstrings especially when her mum finally broke down. It felt very real and raw. The ending of the book also didn't go down the happy ever after path which to me seems much more realistic of how life really is and I appreciate reality vs escapism.

Dolly Aldertons debut novel is a articulate, warm and susintct novel. To those who are familiar with Dolly Aldertons writing it is no surprise she is able to easily create interesting and well rounded characters, each of which have an interesting enough story to want to spend more time with them, and draw different things out of the protagonists Nina Dean.

I finished the book a few days ago now and have been questioning if I have been fooled. Ultimately I enjoyed every nook and cranny of this novel apart from the lead story, perhaps where the title finds its name in “Ghosts”. The main thread follows her relationship with Max, a new man on the scene and how when everything seems to be clicking into place, he disappears. Perhaps this is the catalyst for everything else, her distant friendships and an analysis on which to draw everything else. However it is strange that the least interesting aspect was this. There was almost zero emotional attachment towards him and it felt like a waste of time investing in any of it. The book unsurprisingly sprung into life when involved in with Nina Deans freindships. The writing within these sections was equisite and as mentioned above something that seemed to come with such ease. How Alderton deals with relationships between Nina and her dad is heartbreaking and I would much rather have spent the whole novel with those two rather than any of the ghosting business.

I do leave thinking maybe that was the point all along? But even so its hard to shrug off. It does not stop it from being an excellent debut novel and I am sure will appeal to all her fans and bring in a few new ones as well

Enjoyed this book which was a story on two levels. Nina has a great single life but now in her thirties she wants to share it with someone and she meets the ideal candidate, Max. He seems like her soulmate but as is often the case the course of true love does not run smoothly.
Meanwhile her beloved father is fading away before her eyes and her mother doesn't know how to handle it. so Nina is having to be the grown up. All she wants to do is have her Dad look after her. A beautiful funny tale of love and loss.

Nina is a 32 year old writer whose life is together in many ways but she is looking to meet a man. She joins online dating and meets someone who she thinks is perfect for her. After a significant amount of time spent together and thinking everything is going well- he ghosts her. Vanishes without a trace. This book is such a sharp analysis of the culture of ghosting and the excuses of someone 'having a hard time' thinking its acceptable to just disappear and make the other person feel like they're going mad. There is a subplot as well about Nina's dad who is displaying signs of dementia. I adored this book and will be buying and recommending it to my friends when released. Although this is such a common situation, it isn't talked about often enough. One of my absolute favourites of 2020.

I wouldn't recommend it.

Fans of Caitlin Moran will be hugely disappointed. I'm not even sure which bits were meant to be funny.
As a woman in my early 30s I am probably within the target demographic, but this has to be one of the dullest books I have read this year.

Written in first person perspective of Nina who is dealing with modern dating in her 30s including her first time on a dating app while most of her friends are getting married and having children. On the dating front she has an experience with a guy who later 'ghosts' her. Her dad is suffering with dementia and Nina and her family are struggling with the grief of this throughout the book. The book revolves around Nina's inner turmoil, feelings of heartbreak, anger and anxiety about having children.

The writing was poor, the plot was slow and predictable, the characters were boring. Nina was dull and the reflections from her POV on dating and life in general were uninspired. The dementia storyline was not terrible but it was standard content that has been done better elsewhere.

Overall boring - nothing unexpected, nothing exciting, nothing sexy.

I have been a huge fan of Dolly's writing for years, and loved her recent memoir Everything I Know About Love, which makes me nostalgic for living in London in my 20s, going to terrible parties and being surrounded by best friends.

Her new novel looks at the next phase as a single woman in her 30s, when the majority of her friends are coupled up with children and the complexities of online dating. I absolutely loved it, and read it within the space of two days, no mean feat when also juggling childcare, work and pregnancy.

What I love most about her writing is how observant she is of human fallacies, such as noting when men are plus ones in social situations they will not try and ingratiate themselves with other men, unlike women but will instead use it as a game of competitive one-up-manship to impart their own superior facts and knowledge on the group. This and other brilliant observations made me simultaneously snort with laughter and clench with embarrassment. Also I've heard so many of my friends on the dating scene recount similar tales of being ghosted that I cannot believe no one has written a book about this sooner.

Her writing is beautiful, evocative and entirely relatable and this book was such a pleasure to read. If nothing else, if you have ever been on a hen do - you will particularly enjoy and recognise every aspect of the description which I'm sure you'll cringe at and love just as much as I did, as well as the rest of the story. I hope she continues writing more fiction, she's such a tremendous talent.

In the post-Fleabag era, single girl lit has a tough act to follow. Ghosts isn’t a bad attempt.

The ghosts in question are the central character Nina’s incredible vanishing boyfriend, and her father, who’s in the early stages of dementia and gradually parting ways with reality. Neither can provide the emotional terra firma that men should apparently be able to supply, while bonds with women friends are diminished by children, distance, the passing of time etc. Nothing too groundbreaking in terms of material there, and there’s nothing very memorable about Nina, other than for a food writer, she seems to have no interest in food and never actually writes. The satire is gently mocking rather than caustic – the hen weekend, the lavish wedding, dating site profiles, modern parenting – all the entirely mockable try-hard personal branding and performative authenticity of the present day, and Dolly Alderton often finds a bulls-eye turn of phrase.

The family tragedy is tragic and well done, but I didn’t feel any great interest in or sympathy for Nina. Despite the ho-hum ingredients, occasional implausibility and slightly laboured observational humour, it was overall quite an enjoyable read. Nina’s reconciliation with change and loss is unschmaltzy and feels truthful, which is an achievement, and probably a greater one than being terribly original or hilarious.

I really enjoyed Alderton’s debut novel, which ties together the heartbreak of being brutally rejected early in a relationship and the grief of a parent with dementia cleverly and sympathetically. My only real criticism - vaguely, in fear of giving away too much - is that I was unconvinced that a small friendship group, in this case just the protagonist Nina and one close friend, would suffer multiple men repeatedly “ghosting” them. In my limited experience of online dating, not quite that many men are so deeply awful. My favourite thing about this novel, which sets itself up as romance or at the very least contemporary women’s fiction, was that in the end it didn’t hinge on love at all; it was the story of friendship and career, of a Nina as a rounded and whole person.

As a woman in her late twenties, this book resonated with me on so many levels.
It was also one of those books that I could not put down, which normally only happens when I'm reading a mystery or a thriller. It was that good.

When I first saw the name of this book, I assumed that it would mostly be about a relationship in which the main character had been 'ghosted'. But it is much more than that. It deals with female friendship, as many women start to settle down and have families, whilst others are still looking for love or not sure about settling down.

The way in which it dealt with Nina's parents (her father's illness and her relationship with her mother) added so much to the book. As did the way in which nostalgia and remembering the 'good times' was woven into the current day narrative.

There were so many quotable lines as well, which I've made sure to keep a note of.
It's rare that I see myself so much in a book and completely feel like I'm in the shoes of the main character. And Nina is a character that is engaging, open and honest, which made me so invested in everything that was going on with her. I also loved the character of Lola, as well.

I absolutely adored this book and I can't wait to read more from Dolly Alderton in the future.

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

Nina, our protagonist, as you might have guessed, gets ghosted — not just by a man, but also by various important people in her life. We follow her journey throughout the course of a year to see how she navigates these changing relationships. There’s her best friend from childhood who is so caught up in her new status of mother that she no longer knows how to relate to childless Nina; there is Nina’s mother, seemingly self-absorbed and on a mission to reinvent herself, starting with a new first name; and then of course there’s her father, whose old self is slowly disappearing thanks to the dementia that is taking over.

Some of the dynamics in this book were heartbreakingly beautiful and at the same time difficult to observe — and I could relate to so much, especially when it came to the descriptions of female friendships. Nina’s slow, forced acceptance of her father’s diminishing self was also beautifully portrayed. Her relationship with her ex, Joe, was an interesting one as he remained a firm friend who helped her acknowledge the changing nature not only of their relationship but also helped her see that it’s ok to change your outlook on life and develop and mature alongside your partner.

But it’s not all sad and soppy. Her other best friend Lola made for plenty of comic relief and Nina’s feud with Angelo, her downstairs neighbour, was also both hilarious and charming. Whether or not Nina finds romantic love or not, she’s certainly blessed with the strong, supportive and parental love of all those around her; and Dolly Alderton clearly believes that that’s as important if not more so than having a grand love story in her life. Rather unexpectedly, I loved this book. Dolly’s writing is light and readable but it’s in her ability to convey the depth of human emotions and relationships that lies her true talent.

As I was reading this book, I enjoyed it and thought it was 'ok' - a perfect read to while away an afternoon, however, as I progressed through the book more and more of it resonated with me. Dolly Alderton has managed to put into words how I have felt so many times.
She writes beautifully of female friendships - sometimes fraught, jealous and bitter but ultimately there is such a strong bond.
I really enjyed this book and would recommend !

I adore Dolly Alderton.
This book definitely outstanding. I have devoured this book in just two hours. I cannot wait to recommend this book to everyone.

Full Review to follow on publication day.

A solid debut novel about millennial struggling to navigate the shifting dating and friendship landscape of her early 30s: ageing parents, revised life expectations and loss of friendships when priorities and life trajectories no longer align. This struck this right balance between light, contemporary women's fiction and delicately handling the heavier theme of dementia. Ghosting features too (the clue is in the title), but I think this definition could be stretched beyond the traditional definition to cover other people in Nina's life who seem to be slipping away.