Thank you to Quirk books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think it worked for me, really. It was too much about drugs and loneliness to the point where I don't think the main character's motivations made sense to me in the end. I didn't like any of the people around her and I didn't really like her, either. I think that it was an interesting concept but I don't like how disjointed the narrative was and a lof of the using scenes were too long.

3 stars.

This was such a strong five star read for me! The writing was gripping and fast paced. It takes the classic ghost/haunting story and turns it for an awesome twist.
The body horror and grief horror intertwine for a deliciously dark journey.
It was both horrifying and thought provoking. I especially loved the elements of mycology that add that extra little layer to the entire thing. This one became a new favorite!

Erin has never been able to say no, or set a single boundary with her on-again-off-again boyfriend Silas. Now that college is over, and life in the "real world" is looming,, Silas is flitting in and out of rehab, only staying for short amounts of time before he calls Erin and has her come rescue him. But Erin is determined to make a clean break - new job, new relationship, and so she starts ignoring Silas's calls, When Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart, and she blames herself for what happened to him. Unable to get over his death, she will do anything to see him one more time. When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past everywhere. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she’s opened?
First, let me say that I have never read anything by this author, so I didn't have anything to compare it to in regards to their other works. That being said, there were things I loved about the book and things that, well, not so much. I loved the horror aspect of it. The ghost scenes were truly gruesome, and for me, that was what made the book enjoyable. As for what I didn't really care for - I didn't particularly like or feel an emotional connection to any of the characters, and then there was the excessive drug use. I know the book was about a drug that would allow people to see the dead, but I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be something where everyone stayed stoned out of their minds all of the time. I was expecting a little more horror and a little less of the other. So, if you read it, just adjust your expectations. Overall, I am glad I read it, and it was a good kick-off for Halloween.

Wow, this book gutted me. Clay McLeod Chapman's writing is visceral and affecting-- he uses horror to tell a moving tale about loss, addiction, and growing up and away from college friends. Immersive and paradigm-shifting.

The nitty-gritty: A group of friends discover the mysteries and dangers of ghosts and hauntings in this creepy, disturbing tale.

“You wanna get haunted?” A seemingly innocent question opens up all sorts of terrifying possibilities in Clay McLeod Chapman’s latest, a weird and wonderful combination of drugs, mushrooms and ghosts that just keeps getting stranger and stranger the more you read. Chapman takes the tried and true haunted house trope and turns it on its head. In this story, a drug called Ghost not only takes you on a hallucinogenic trip, but allows you to see ghosts. And in this case, the “house” that’s haunted isn’t just the type with four walls and a roof, although part of the story takes place in an abandoned house. I had so many WTF moments while reading this, and readers who aren’t into “weird” might struggle with this one, but I appreciate well written books that lean towards weird and this was a good one.

Erin, Silas, Tobias and Amara are post-college graduate friends, living in the historical city of Richmond, Virginia. Silas has always struggled with drug addiction, and Erin has always been there to pick up the pieces whenever he spirals out of control, but Erin has had enough. Silas hints to the others that he has a secret, a new drug that will change everything, and he tells Erin “You can’t see them yet, but you will.” But before he can explain that cryptic statement, Silas is found dead of an overdose. 

But there’s no time to grieve, as Tobias explains that he and Silas were testing a new drug before he died, a drug that can make you see ghosts. Tobias convinces the others to come with him to an abandoned house and take Ghost so that they can communicate with Silas. But Tobias isn’t telling them everything. He has a plan for Ghost, and he wants Erin and Amara to help him. And as it turns out, that means staying in the house—for good.

Chapman tells his story from Erin’s point of view, so the whole thing feels very focused and intense. Erin is meant to be the most level-headed one of the group, but that’s not saying much since all of the characters are pretty messed up. Like the others, Erin is floundering, trying to find her place in life, looking for meaningful relationships and especially grieving the loss of her friend Silas. She carries a Sharpie with her wherever she goes and writes “Erin is here” on walls all over the city, as if she’s trying to establish her identity. There’s a lot of soul searching going on, and when Erin gets the chance to connect with Silas after he dies, she throws herself into the task without really thinking things through. It’s only after she realizes Tobias is trying to trap her that she panics and tries to escape.

I thought the setting of Richmond, Virginia was perfect for a ghost story. Chapman drops in facts about the city’s rich history as the characters visit their favorite hangouts, like a bar that used to be an antebellum house, or an old building where hundreds of people died in a factory fire. One of the characters says “The whole city’s a graveyard,” and that’s exactly what Erin experiences once she takes her first dose of Ghost. It reminded me a lot of The Sixth Sense, which takes place in a different historical city but uses a similar idea. (Also, I couldn’t help but remember that movie’s iconic phrase “I see dead people” as I was reading.)

But my favorite part of the story was the idea that people are haunted, not houses. Chapman uses both the literal meaning of the word and “haunted” as a metaphor, and he also plays around with the word “ghost,” sometimes using his title chapters to show its multiple meanings  (like the phrase “giving up the ghost”). I thought it was cleverly done and added a nice touch.

The story is a little convoluted and manic at times, jumping from one idea to the next, but for me it mimicked the feeling of being high on hallucinogens (or what I imagine that must feel like as I’ve never indulged myself), the idea of not being able to tell what’s real or imagined. There’s one scene in the house after Erin’s taken Ghost where she finds herself living a different life, a life that she and Silas could have had together, although it turns out to be a nightmarish version. Was she actually there with Silas’s ghost? Or was the whole thing just a dream? The author writes that scene as if it could go either way, and I loved the ambiguity of not really knowing for sure what was happening.

There’s a cool and very disturbing twist in the second half that I’ll admit I saw coming, but it didn’t make it any less gross or upsetting. If there’s ever anything that would put me off doing drugs, it’s this book, lol. There are no benevolent spirits in Ghost Eaters, only hungry ghosts who won’t leave you alone. The last section takes an even darker turn, as things quickly become deadly in Tobias’s abandoned house. Some people might find the ending over-the-top, but I loved every bit of it. You don’t need a pill to see ghosts, just crack open Ghost Eaters and get haunted for yourself.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

This book was a little bit Train-Spotting and a little bit ago Ask Alice. Erin is trying to get her life together, but when her friend (and ex-boyfriend), Silas, dies because of an overdose, she doesn’t feel like she can move on. When their mutual friend says he see his spirit and speak with him again, she’s too curious to turn down the offer, but she’s quickly pulled into a nightmare.

There were some legitimately horrifying scenes in Ghost Eaters, but there was just something lacking for me. The book combined the themes of addiction and generational trauma in an effective way, but the characters weren’t as compelling as they could have been. It wasn’t my cup of tea. I think other fans of the horror genre will enjoy it, though.

It seems silly to me not to start this review without telling you that this novel is incredibly divisive. The Ghost Eaters is going to be a book you (probably) will either love or hate, and I think that makes the story even more interesting. Eaters intelligently captures addiction and trauma; You become obsessed with the escape. It’s the ability to feel less or to stave those heavier feelings off for as long as possible. Any amount of comfort, in whatever form, is better than desolation, right?

The Ghost Eaters is my first Chapman book, but it’ll by no means be my last. His writing is engaging and conveys the story in such an interesting way. I’m just sad I didn’t read it sooner, though it was an excellent start to the whole spooky season reading extravaganza.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Quirk Books, and Clay McLeod Chapman for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Friendships are a key part of our life. The people we let into our lives; trust with our hopes and fears and help make life fun….most of the time. Sometimes we allow a friend into our lives who is a lot more problematic - they can offer fun and excitement but also can be a drain on our joy as we end up sharing their baggage and constant demands. In Clay McLeod Chapman’s eerie horror novel Ghost Eaters there is a fantastic exploration of toxic friendship; the power of addiction and our fears what may lurk awaiting us after death.

Erin is a young woman facing post-College life in the US city of Richmond and facing a crossroads between giving up dreams of being a writer; embracing office work and a future in marketing and her once close quartet of friends starting to fracture and at the heart of that the magnetic yet chaotic Silas who has been Erin’s on off boyfriend and best friend but increasingly he seems lost in drug taking and hopping in and out of recovery. An attempt after his last escape to attempt an intervention leads the very erratic Silas to disappear and be found dead. Erin is overwhelmed with guilt at her failure to get through to Silas and then she is told there is a drug named Ghost that as well as getting you high could also just possibly help you meet spirits from the other side. Erin finds this drug irresistible but she also discovers it has an attraction for undead spirits drawn to users and in a city like Richmond there are many many places where the dead may be lurking.

This is a very compelling tale where Chapman has a brilliant hook of how a toxic friendship is itself an addiction. Erin knows consistently Silas is a mix of control freak; bully; snob and also someone who gives Erin and friends joy, love and a desire in them to please him. Erin can’t let go and the one time she has is when Silas dies of an overdose. Told throughout in first person we get to see how Silas is pretty much always in her mind and his death shatters her. Guilt, grief and loss all at the same time as she feels her life slowly subside into bad dates, boring jobs an an uncaring family. We understand why in such a life Silas offers her a chance of escape and excitement which is now gone. Chapman’s writing of these initial sections is very powerful and never judging. We understand how this situation has evolved. And then for extra terror we add ghosts into the story.

The idea that one of Erin’s friends has is for the three remaining friends to gather; take a mysterious new drug named Ghost and hold a seance to try and contact Silas. Only Erin though seems to sense anything. The drug also gives Erin a high she really craves more and more. At this point the story moves into a really unusual direction which is utterly compelling. Erin realised this drug is now making her see ALL the ghosts of Richmond and more disturbingly all the ghosts see her and find the taste of this drug irresistible. Chapman smartly makes us feel Erin’s puzzlement and then shock at what this drug does to her. We get increasingly nightmarish encounters and reminders this centuries old city has seen a huge amount of violent death and disaster and worst of all they want to taste the Ghost drug that lives in Erin. It’s absolutely gripping but also highlights the shock we realise that despite all these horrific things that happen to her; that make her start to lose friends, family and increasingly be seen as unreliable and strange; despite all of that Erin still wants to take more Ghost.

The final sections of the book explore the horror of addiction. Erin submits to more and more Ghost; the idea of finally getting close to Silas and the highs that this drug gives her makes her become lost in a claustrophobic world constant drug taking and encounters with the dead of the city. There are strange hypnotic scenes that are redolent of something that cross into Trainspotting territory and I bet literary critics would just say it’s all in Erin’s mind but I’m a genre fan so of course for me it’s all real! This is both a story of someone’s self destruction but as we find there are other forces at work using Erin and have far bigger plans for the use of Ghost. Usually in horror it’s about the monster getting the victim here the victim themselves welcomes the monster into their lives and I think this makes it one of the most unsettling horror tales I’ve read in a long time. One toxic friend can easily destroy an entire set of lives but our own responsibility on when to end things is also under the spotlight. Is Erin victim or instigator of her own potential destruction? The story leaves us to decide for ourselves but the finale leaves things uncomfortably open ended as to how this will finally end.

Ghost Eaters is an imaginative, eerie and on occasion gruesome horror filled with dark surprises and a nightmarish exploration of addiction. This gives it a fresh edge for me in a horror tale but will take the reader into some very dark places of death, grief and drug abuse and then adds the supernatural on top to chilling effect. I could not let it go once I started it and highly recommend this to anyone seeking a terrifying read this spooky season.

Ghost Eaters is another great read by Clay McLeod Chapman. The complicated relationship between Erin and Silas gets even more so when he texts her to get him out of rehab. Erin doesn't want to be his crutch anymore and wants to get on with her life. Silas soon dies from an overdose, and Erin can't take it. She eventually tracks down and consumes the drug Silas used to help him see the dead, with catastrophic results. I can't do the story justice in my review. I highly recommend picking this up.

Full review on my blog: http://bewarethescarylibrarian.blogspot.com/2022/09/new-arrival-ghost-eaters-by-clay-mcleod.html

A suspenseful, intense, and unique horror novel that addresses mental illness, addition, and grief. Erin is attached and holding on to a toxic relationship with her ex Silas, even after her death. When she hears about a new drug, Ghost, that can help her see the dead, she finds a way to connect with him again. Unfortunately, Ghost has some serious side effects and soon Erin finds herself spiraling in a destruction that she can’t control.

The writing is very reflective of the main character’s mental state. It’s a solid read, though it did not hit as hard as I was hoping. I think I really struggled to connect to the characters. That being said, I really liked how the author addressed struggles that are very human in nature. We are all haunted in one way or another.

Overall this book was okay. Not bad but not great. Erin is obsessed with Silas and Silas is obsessed with drugs. He ODs and Erin and her friends find out Silas discovered a drug before he died that allows you to see the dead. Sounds great in theory.
I really liked the overall theme of exploring our inner demons and how we are haunted by them especially in the form of addiction. There were some strong points made and some creepy scenes that I really enjoyed. However, the actual synopsis doesn’t begin until about 40% in and by that point I was already bored. There were a lot of scenes and things happening that I find didn’t fully make sense and I wish we would have gotten a WHY for some of the things happening. It almost seemed like a lot of things were happening and we were being thrown all over the place while reading and sometimes I just got plain confused as to why these things were happening. I sometimes felt like I was read the same chapter over and over again. Overall though, I did enjoy this book I just didn’t enjoy it AS MUCH as I wanted to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this story! But I am biased because I am a RIchmonder and I've live in the neighborhood that was mentioned for over ten years haha. If you like grief horror with an addiction spin and spiritualism history, you will enjoy this book! 👻 The physical copy of this one is gorgeous as well!

Thanks netgalley!

“I haven’t eaten anything for I don’t know how long. All I ingest are ghosts now.”

This book was fantastic! If you are looking for a spooky read, look no further. If you are looking for a book with dark themes, look no further. If you are looking for a book that will give you chills, look no further. If you are looking for a book that can make you laugh but also makes you kind of want to cry, look no further!

I would honestly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It never dragged and I felt really attached to each and every character, SILAS ESPECIALLY.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up. You will not regret it!

All I can say is WOW! This is my first book i’ve read from Clay McLeod Chapman and it was a wild, sad, and horrifying ride.

I will say I feel especially attached to this book because I live in central Virginia and this is set in Richmond(and Hopewell). Chapman was born and raised in Richmond and he references a lot of distinct areas in town. You really get the vibe of the city in the book. With that said, not all of it is presented in a positive light. I don’t think Chapman chose Richmond as the setting just for nostalgia. With the heavy themes of drug addiction, it mirrors the real-life increase of opioid overdoses in the last few years here. With this book also involving ghosts, Virginia and its history are a perfect setting for this.

This book isn’t a light-hearted read. It’s got heavy themes of grief, death, and drug addiction. I really sympathized and felt the pain of Erin, as she tries to get through each day after her friend/ex Silas dies. When she’s given an opportunity to see him again, it’s understandable why she risks everything to do it. The horror scenes in this book…incredible. The séance scenes with be stuck in my head for awhile. The physical descriptions of the characters as they descend further into addiction are traumatizing. Chapman really shows the struggle of addiction in this and how it’s a day-to-day battle for a lot of people.

I could go on and on about how good this book was but I don’t want to give anything away. I highly recommend this but just be prepared for a lot of heavy topics. Thank you to Net Galley and Quirk Books for the digital ARC of this! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5/5!

GHOST EATERS is my first book from Chapman and based on the synopsis I thought I knew what I was signing up for, but what I ended up with was a much wilder ride than I was expecting. The story starts out harmless enough as we get to know Erin, whose world is slowly falling apart. The descent into grief is excellently portrayed within the pages of this story, as is the topic of addiction and its impact on not only the individual, but those in their lives.

The pacing was a bit slower than I was expecting and I felt the story lag in the middle. Chapman delivers a wild ending that got points added back onto my overall rating. I wasn’t expecting the weird turn that things took at all and while it worked for me, I’m not sure how others will feel. I still have a lot of questions about the how/why of this story and there are several things I wish would have been expanded on more.

If you’re looking for a claustrophobic, eerie and weird story, I definitely recommend giving this one a try!

A huge thank you to Quirk Books for my gifted copy!

In some ways, Ghost Eaters was exactly what I expected it to be. In other ways, it was even more intense than I could have imagined.

Recent college grad, Erin, is facing the all-too-familiar struggle of figuring out her life plans. Her anxiety is made worse by her fracturing friend group and her addict of an ex-boyfriend who constantly expects Erin to get him out of trouble. The sudden loss of a loved one threatens to send Erin over the edge, until a friend shows her a new drug called Ghost, a drug that doesn't just ease the pain, but can connect you to lost loved ones again...

With spooky season approaching, I was looking for a light but chilling read that would ease me into the season. Ghost Eaters caught my attention because the use of psychedelics sounded like an interesting twist on a classic ghost story. While this book is definitely a light read due to its small size and fast pace, I was pleasantly surprised to find the book was much creepier than I'd expected. The descriptions were vivid and grotesque--sometimes a little too grotesque for my taste--and the author did a great job of capturing the trippy scenes in a way that truly felt disorienting. I would recommend this book to lovers of Mexican Gothic.

Ghost Eaters was exactly what it was advertised to be. It was a relevant look at the designer drugs people will take and the promises they make. OK, maybe I am over identifying with that. I’ve watched too many kids grow up and fall into that life. Still, Erin refuses to pick up her ex yet again. Not long after, he is dead. She is made an offer. There’s a new drug that lets you see the dead. Should you take it? Obviously the drug gets taken. Where would the book be without that? Ghost Eaters was a bit out there, but you know that going in. Clay McLeod Chapman is getting added to my list to watch permanantly. The last three books of his I have read have been great.

Book Review:

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman

What a trip... literally! Ghost Eaters is the creepy, mushroom tripping, ghost story that you need for your spooky season reading. You will look twice at any shadows you may see for weeks afterwards!

Outside of the drug trips and the seances, I really liked the conversation around addicts/addiction and their effects on the people around them. It comes up several times in the story and never preachy, just a reminder of what has to be done to not lose yourself in someone else's addiction.

Ghost Eaters releases 9/20. Make sure you read it this spooky season!! 👻 Thanks to @netgalley and @quirkbooks for this advanced reader!!

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Coming with a powerful commentary on drugs and addiction, Ghost Eaters follows Erin, who begins taking a drug called 'Ghost' to try and find the ghost of her recently dead addict love interest. Some of the emotional background and reasoning behind Erin's actions was a little lacking and the ghost action takes a while to get to. Interesting and challenging story.