Do you want to see a ghost? Reconnect with a dead loved one? There is a pill for that. “Ghost Eaters” by Clay McLeod Chapman is a refreshing tale of not only horror, but what we will do for love.
Erin discovers there is a pill that will allow her to see deceased Silas, a man she has loved for years though their relationship was fraught with turmoil. She is looking for closure, and this pill seems harmless enough…until it isn’t. “Ghost Eaters” keeps the reader on the edge of the seat throughout the entire book.

Nobody does gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, stomach-turning storytelling quite like Clay McLeod Chapman. A heartwarmingly affable man with a mind of untold depths is perhaps the best balance to strike in the creative world, and fortunately Chapman is both in spades. Following him on social media is a constant adventure laden with breadcrumbs into his world and seemingly ceaseless work, and for that reason Ghost Eaters is one of my personal most anticipated releases and he one of my most avidly read authors.

Every author has their signature tools of the trade, something that sets them apart from anyone else in readers' minds. Clay McLeod Chapman's toolbox seems full to bursting with feverish delight in the ways to interpret the concept and nature of storytelling. Where The Remaking and Whisper Down The Lane built themselves from the blocks of shifting media consumption and word of mouth rumor mills, Ghost Eaters infects its story and its people with something far more sinister. Beyond word of mouth, Ghost Eaters reframes the very notion of spirits, houses, and haunting into a new land teeming with equal parts of every potentially toxic emotion humanity can muster.

After she busts him out of rehab, Erin watches her closest friend and-sometimes lover Silas rapidly descend into what appears to be a drug-fueled madness. When the intervention she and the friend group stage for him explodes beyond control, Erin kicks him out of her apartment and tries desperately to kick the habit of being his savior whenever he calls. When he's found dead under an overpass, she must reckon with the wreckage of the intensity of her connection to him and her guilt. Tobias, one of the friend group, proposes a seance in an abandoned house so they might connect to Silas one more time…and reveals in the process that he and Silas have discovered a drug that is both potentially revolutionary and highly risky. Hungry for a way to continue her relationship with Silas, Erin soon spirals into a world where she can hardly believe her eyes…or trust her body. The only way to survive is to escape and break long held addictions of all kinds, no matter the cost.

It's easy, under the right conditions, to be intoxicated with someone. Even addicted to them. Driven to sacrifice everything about yourself just for the knowledge that they might be happy and safe. It's also one of humanity's most dangerous and ultimately unrewarding tendencies. To fall into it is to become a shell of your former self, always clawing back and forth between reclaiming your identity and giving over to the life your counterpart wants. Chapman's ability to delve into such a tenderly toxic landscape and pull from it a narrative as devastating as Ghost Eaters is a testament to his strengths in exploring and harnessing the rawer sides of human nature. It is a similar testament that no single character is ever fully unlikable - even at their worst and most manipulative moments, Erin's ability to see the best in her friends allows us a window into the complexities of their struggles. Ghost Eaters is a novel of addiction and haunting where the houses, streets, and people are equally marred with the ghosts of their past even as they clamber toward a livelier future.

Even Silas, with the allure and charisma of a cult leader and arguably the most toxic member of the group, is never fully divorced from Erin's devotion to him even in our eyes. By turns achingly sad and subtly menacing, the tendrils of his need envelope her until she can no longer see the world for what it is, only what he wants it to be and what it would be without his presence - no matter how she can get it. Erin's journey toward life and a future is checkered with tragedy - both hers and the tragedies of the revenants she sees after taking Ghost, the drug that Silas and Tobias argue can connect you to lost loved ones and render mourning obsolete - that crashes into her in unrelenting waves.

Readers of Chapman's prior works may notice small nods to Whisper Down the Lane, as if the research done for that novel still whispered through the author's fingertips, in the agency Erin stakes her future on working for, and the lost son of one of Ghost's later addicts. These echoes, whether intentional or not, adds a layer of sadness that feels right at home among the cast of other spirits lingering in the shells of Tobias's dealing headquarters and begging for new vessels. While Ghost Eaters also extends its reach into the current and strangely persistent trend of eco-horror with a twist a la Mexican Gothic - I've read three separate authors over the past two weeks with their hands in sinister phyla - , it also manages to stand on its own wholly original ground that will have readers coming away reexamining their ideas of "haunted houses", ghosts, and moving on without forgetting the past.

I would be remiss to leave this review without acknowledging Chapman's devastatingly sharp way with words. Reading his work is always a test of stomachs and hearts in equal turn, and Ghost Eaters is no different. I found myself recoiling from turns of phrase through tears brought on from a previous paragraph's revelations on more than one occasion. Clay McLeod Chapman is a writer's writer and a reader's favorite: one so skilled with word-building you can't wait to see what previously unheard-of image he'll conjure in your head next.

In recent years Clay McLeod Chapman has been on a fine run of form, his latest Ghost Eaters following the excellent The Remaking (2019) and the even better, Whisper Down the Lane (2021) which was one of the literary highlights of the year. All three are great books in their own right, but what is particularly impressive is the fact that they are uniquely distinct from each other with Chapman quietly building an impressive back-catalogue, being equally comfortable writing about the real-life horror of the Satanic Panic era as he is supernatural curses or life after death.

Ghost Eaters cleverly revolves around the theme of addiction in a physical, allegorical and supernatural sense via a drug which allows the users to see ghosts. Before we get to the ghost part, it is clear that main character Erin is in many ways addicted to Silas whom she has had an on-off relationship with through college and slightly beyond. The four main characters are of the age when college is in the taillights behind them and they should be targeting their first professional job in the big bad world. However, things have not worked out that way as Silas is a drug addict and he regularly uses Erin as his safety net as he repeatedly flunks out of rehab for the umpteenth time. Much of Erin’s thought process is connected to Silas and what he is doing, with the novel beautifully capturing how directionless those in their early twenties often feel, but at the same time think they know everything and are invincible (whilst still sponging from their parents).

Erin narrates the novel and although some readers might find her dependency and lack of boundaries regarding Silas to be frustrating, but it is pivotal to the direction the plot heads into. Early in the novel the young woman, like any drug addict, swears off Silas for what she believes to be the final time, only for him to die from an overdose just as she is about to start a new job. Wracked with guilt and pain she misses the funeral, only for things to take a much darker turn when she meets up with her two other old mutual friends with Silas, Tobias and Amara.

There are considerable levels of pain and guilt on offer in Ghost Eaters which is an incredibly dark book and is a druggie juiced up version of the age-old horror trope of attempting to bring a loved one back to life (even though you know you really shouldn’t, as no good can ever come out of it). Toby tells Erin that Silas discovered a drug which allowed him to see the dead, although she does not really believe him, agrees to a séance where the four take the remainder of the drug. This was a terrific sequence which was equally trippy and freaky, with Erin believing she has contacted Silas. Toby says they need to exercise caution, but Erin wants more (spot the addict) and the plot begins to shift through the years in some very clever directions.

In a round about way the book asks the reader how far they would go in order to get the ultimate kick or high? If heroin or ecstasy does not do the job then the drug on offer in this novel provides something more surreal than even the strongest acid could do! And what if lots of people started to take it? I also loved the clever direction the plot moves into when the use of the drug ‘ghost’ expands beyond the close circle of friends.

Ghost Eaters is a fine example of Southern Gothic horror literature, throws in a fair wedge of graphic body horror and includes haunting sequences which are a million miles away from Ghostbusters. However, these sequences are also very sad as the ghost are searching for something they do not have, but which becomes apparent as the plot moves on. The location of Richmond Virginia was also terrific and key to the story, as due to the Civil War and the city’s Confederate history there were more ghosts around than most other places. The sequence when Erin has her first day at her new job (not long after taking the drug) was a killer as the office was littered with ghosts. Freaking out, her new colleagues thought it was first day jitters!

The manner in which events spiralled was very nicely handled, even if things came together rather too neatly in the end, it was still a first rate read. Ghost Eaters expertly plucks at the raw nerves of the grieving process and hints at the bleakest afterlife imaginable. Remember kids, if offered drugs JUST SAY NO (especially ones which offer glimpses of what lies beyond the veil).

2.5 stars. I have mixed feelings on this one. I absolutely loved the general premise and thought the ending was clever without coming out of left field. There were some extremely graphic body horror moments that I had to skim through. Luckily, it was only a page or two of it. I also just love the idea of fungal horror.

Where the book lost me was with its characters, especially the main one. They never felt fully realized and seemed like just vehicles for the plot. Erin in particular annoyed me due to her extreme non-agency. I'm actually fine with characters who "don't have agency" in the beginning if part of their development & growth is gaining it. But Erin felt like she was defined by Silas the entire time. Yes, you can say that the whole point is she was addicted to him and breaking an addiction isn't easy. But really she just wasn't an interesting character to follow in my opinion. I also didn't like the pseudo-deep talk that randomly popped up near the end. It took me straight out of the book and felt really disconnected from the rest of the highly readable writing.

There's something special about this book. I think it has good bones, but the characters really brought the actual experience down for me.

Wow…this book was so f***ed up, but also so good. I did have a hard time getting into but once I was in, I was in! This book was equal amounts creepy and thought provoking. I think for anyone who has ever lost someone, you can get lost and pulled into the draw of this drug. Some parts of this book were so disturbing, but I still couldn’t stop. Really great book!

Thank you so much to the author and the publisher for letting me have an advance read. I’m looking forward to adding this one to my collection and seeing others reactions! Great novel to release around Halloween!

Erin is enthralled with Silas who haunts her life and yet brings the uplifts for which she yearns. Escaping a family where love is held distantly, Erin is devastated by Silas’ death and seeks him through the use of a “haunting” capsule. An unusual take on a Southern Gothic tale, Sara is caught up in a haunting of immense proportions, discovering haunted spirits everywhere. Descriptions of the hauntings are quite graphic and scary, my stomach churned when I was reading it. I thought about putting it down but the book grabbed me in a way and I had to know what would happen and how the story resolved. Probably leans on the side of horror vs spookiness. On another level it is a story of addiction and how it just infiltrates one’s life, haunting everywhere. Having worked professionally in a residential drug program for teens, and in an alcoholism treatment program, I saw the haunting that addiction can cause. Looking through that frame, the book has been haunting me a bit since I finished reading it.

Thanks to Quirk books and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

The early chapters of Ghost Eaters nearly paint our narrator as yet another too-cool-for-the-room type, so Relatable that she could Pac-Man around into being unrelatable. But as things pick up, the characterization evens out, and she becomes a sympathetic ride-along for what is, by its nature, a difficult read. It’s a keenly observant narrative that, with a mix of body horror and just plain horror, plucks at the raw nerves of the grieving process. If you’ve never been there, it’s instructive; if you’re in the midst of your own grief, your mileage may vary.


Grade: B+

(from Sci Fi Magazine Summer 2022 issue)

Really enjoyable read, will probably use for a book club at the library. Interesting themes and characters.

Erin and Silas had a bit of an on-again and off-again relationship on college. Now their group of friends have moved on into adulthood, as unfulfilling as it may be. One night Silas reconnects out of the blue and needing help to escape rehab. Ever drawn to Silas’ magnetism, Erin helps out, only to discover that he’s discovered a new drug that allows its user to see and interact with the dead. When Silas turns up dead, Erin teams up with her friends Tobias and Amara to bring Silas’ ghost home. But once doors are opened, they’re hard to shut.

What I Loved:
- For the most part, there’s a lot of plot present in this story! There were a few lull like moments but they didn’t last too long.
- I enjoyed the “trippyness” of the story, reading and experiencing it from the perspective of a character who begins to go down the slippery slope of addiction.
- This story, for the most part, falls a but under paranormal horror but also the kind that is fairly grotesque. While Nick Cutter will always be the king in regards to writing grotesque horror, Chapman isn’t too close behind.
- There were portions that brought back memories of Mexican Gothic which I fairly well enjoyed (the struggle among house and plant and their relation to possession).

What I Didn’t Love:
- I didn’t realize that I was, in a roundabout way, signing up for a story of a character who ultimately battles with an addiction. While I applaud Chapman in creating what is in many ways this allegory, a story about addiction and the ghosts individuals battle, I think I expected something a little bit different and in some ways left wanting more of something. It turned out to be less complex than what I had hoped.

Overall:
Overall, I really enjoyed this one! I’ve not ready any of Chapman’s work up until this point and found it to be a solid introduction. I think for those that are interested in stories that blend a bit of real life situations and struggles with those that are a little bit “fantastical” in the paranormal department, you’ll find this story quite satisfying!

Reminiscent of early Stephen King. Now THIS is horror. Gruesome, nasty, heartfelt and hilarious. Clay Chapman just keeps getting better and better with every book. How is that possible?!

GHOST-EATERS is Literary Horror from acclaimed and prolific author Clay McLeod Chapman. [Release 2022] A keen revelation of the nature of addiction, in which obsession as a part of personal psychology extends far beyond the expected types [drugs and other controlled substances], GHOST-EATERS carefully peels back the layers to examine what lies deep within the core of these characters.


The novel also takes a rather unique approach to Afterlife. Caution: there is not a lot of hope here, other than the hope of the human spirit and human ingenuity. Its Afterlife is depressing and implacable. Also, set in Richmond, Virginia, once the Confederate Capital and site of a couple of centuries of Slavery plus Civil War battlefields, Revenants are numerous, unavoidable, hungry. So added to the Horror and despair is thought of all those painful, horrifying, backstories.


GHOST-EATERS deserves a wide audience, and will appeal to discerning readers of Horror.