Thank you to the author, Avid Reader Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lisa Taddeo can definitely write, the prose here shines. But... and there's a big but: These stories are all about bitter, vapid, cynical narcissists - all this plus the rampant fatphobia that pops up continually. I found no reading pleasure in this book and would not recommend.

Lisa has such a beautiful, distinctive writing style. Though a lot of the stories felt heavy and somewhat dark even, they were all enjoyable in their own ways. She really has a way with words and with describing female desire and removing any shame or stigma. Thank you to Netgalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC.

Terrible. Like most everyone else has stated this book is full of fat phobia and narcissistic people. Focusing on calories, “macintosh assed” young women, how evil it is that young women can date older men leaving us older women in the lurch etc. Are people really like the women in these stories? If so someone please help us all. Forty two is not old. It’s ok to be the natural size that you are.

The writing in this book made me cringe. I guess I don’t get the appeal.

Three Women and Animal have been sitting on my TBR for quite awhile, so I was excited to pick up Ghost Lover. I read through this book in two sittings and it was a lot. Fatphobia, ageism and so many other things that may be triggering for people. It seems like this author has a lot of opinions on young, pretty girls and after a few stories it became exhausting to get through. These things aren't usually triggering for me, but by the end of this collection I wondered if maybe they should be.

I will say that I really enjoyed Lisa Taddeo’s writing style. She is clever and while most of the characters in this collection were unlikeable, they were raw and their flaws are fully on display, which you don’t often see. My favorite stories in the collection were Ghost Lover, Air Supply, and A Suburban Weekend. I especially which Air Supply was a bit longer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for an advanced copy. Though this book wasn’t a new favorite I still look forward to checking out other works by this author.

After reading and loving Taddeo's non-fiction and fiction, I was very interested in getting my hands on this collection of her short fiction (thank you, Avid Reader Press and Netgalley!) This set of characters is electric and edgy and exactly what I wanted to more of: modern women living outside of the ways we expect them to. I read an interview with Taddeo where she said that her writing is meant to make people feel less alone and I defy anyone to not reflect at least a small part of themselves in the characters featured in this installation of her work. These stories build on the same themes in her previous works - sex, grief, desire, loneliness - and are equally satisfying. This is one of my favourite collections in recent years.

Let me start by saying, I love Lisa Taddeo. I was enthralled by Three Women. I'm also a sucker for short stories, but tend to find myself struggling with some stories while LOVING others. My favorite stories were Ghost Lover, Beautiful People, and Air Supply for sure, as I felt I could best connect with the characters and situations. That doesn't mean that one should avoid the other stories at all, they just didn't resonate with me as much, and that's okay.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this - especially if you loved any of Taddeo's previous work! :) I look forward to see what she puts out next.

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭.

This collection of stories is filled with the thoughts and emotions often kept in check. As in 𝘈𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺, from which I took the above quote, young friends take a trip to Puerto Rico, which ends up being more a story about ‘stupid young girls’. It is also about youth and it’s highs, how it feels when it fades, competitive friendship, and the measure of a woman, so often based on the male gaze. In fact, much of the book feels like women are always at the meat market. We talk a good game these days, but these snippets of raw honesty, desire and the erasure of pain only prove that women, good women (whatever that means) still throw themselves on the plate to be sliced and chewed up, even when they know better. They have sexual encounters because they are free, but often aren’t even interested in the particular guy they are with. They’re not supposed to get a bump (high) from men ogling them and yet it is confirmation of having something worth the attention. It’s superficial and yet, isn’t that how many women were taught to feel? Their friendship is a mess too, try as they might, one is always superior in small ways to the other.

Women are resigned to less, like Noni in 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still want, desperately. Noni had long ago resigned herself, her work, her future to Harry, who could never really be hers. Wasting years waiting for Harry to leave his wife, Helene, of course he will but she didn’t imagine another, Marian, glittering so brightly. Noni is forever in second place. Harry holds court, King over his domain and the women allow him to get away with it. Is it abusive, cruel if one schemes against themselves? What debasement is worse than of oneself?

Female desire isn’t necessarily ‘good for them’, nor does it always make sense. A woman can be brilliant, gorgeous, and still want the worse things for themselves. Women who have sex with unabashed freedom and yet still the mind factors in, can’t be shut off. Beautiful people are often at the forefront, but there is so much damage in these pages, and pain. Pain buried under self-deception and the theme could very well be, “We all need somebody to please.” Men here, no matter how lousy, are like a benevolent God whose attention shines upon you, but only for a brief moment before you are eclipsed by someone younger. Behold youth, everything is for those glittering girls. Older women misbehave, like Joan who likes younger men. She knows all about the hell it is to arrive looking good, once you’re a woman of a certain age. And arrive she must, audience for her lover’s wedding, to a much younger girl, Molly. The man, an actor named Jack, eases through women and doesn’t even give them much thought at all.

There are beautiful, important people and then the rest of us. Do beautiful women have to ‘settle’? Some don’t even want to raise their own child, like in 𝘗𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘢,1966. Women do scandalous things with bad men but how much of a thrill it can give others. What happens after the ruin? These are not sweet women, they are hungry for love, sex, and are often bitter, angry or just plain exhausted from all of it. Tired of the effort of being alive and steering their needs. It’s an ever changing perspective depending on their age, from youth to the slow decline. Sorting through the advice left to rot from mothers and fathers, figuring out their place in the world and its rules, because let’s face it, the world when you’re twenty isn’t going to be the same when you’re sliding into 40. Who are you to be, when men want either an ‘untouched angel’ or someone ‘deeply damaged’? There is often self-hate, of course there is, when ‘these day women had to be a million things’. One line made me wince, ‘A successful man was better perceived if he had an ugly wife.’ That’s a loaded sentence, oh boy, and I get exactly what she means.

Engaging, sometimes shocking, penetrating- I wonder how younger people will read these stories. It’s often interesting to me how we perceive women like the ones in this book. Some of the stories are like sandpaper on your skin, a bit unsettling. That makes interesting writing.

Publication Date: June 14, 2022 Available TODAY

Avid Reader Press

Simon & Schuster

This is a collection of short stories. I didnt enjoy all of the stories very much however one thing that was consistent was the writing style. I thought the authors writing style was very unique and kept me reading.

** This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review**

I have previously listened to Three Women and Animal, and while I didn’t love either I did enjoy them enough to request this ARC when I came across it. Maybe it’s because I listened to the other books, or maybe that it’s yet another format (non-fiction to novel and now short stories) but Ghost Lover wasn’t for me.

This was a selection of hollow, vapid stories that felt pointless. Disappointingly, there was nothing to take away from the collection. I can read light stories about shallow characters but there was nothing appealing in this case. The stories all concerned women who could have been the same character at different ages and in slightly different situations (not too different from the main character in Animal either). These women have the same preoccupations (weight, food, money, men) and it got boring fast.

Perhaps what irritated me most was that I was left confused by many similes and metaphors used; what exactly is ‘lonely mascara’? Or ‘the temperature of ham sandwiches’? And how do you look at someone ‘like a ten-dollar bill’? Is that good or bad? If this is genius writing, I’m apparently not a genius reader.

I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unfamiliar with Lisa Taddeo, and I would hesitantly recommend to those who enjoyed Animal.

Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley and Avid Reader Press.

Thank you to Net Galley and Avid Reader Press for the e-ARC. Taddeo’s stories of unrequited love come with a bitter twist. The best were Beautiful People, Air Supply, and Suburban Weekend. Taddeo’s writing is complex and brilliant at it’s peak when describing dynamic of competitiveness and love in platonic female relationships. (Next sentence blocked out as a spoiler in the review) The twist of Suburban Weekend with the excessive eating of the refilled candy jar left the book with fantastic ending. However, the titular story that started out the book felt muddled and confusing. Taddeo seemed to be possibly going for some nuanced discussion on sexual assault and drugs in romantic relationships. I’m still unsure what the first story was really trying to say because some parts felt so contradictory. Her writing style is beautifully jarring and raw, but it felt unbalanced when the point Taddeo was trying to make seemed so unclear. The writing style was very fun, but ultimately the collection could’ve been stronger.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of Ghost Lover by Lisa Taddeo!

I was a little conflicted about how I felt about this book. I loved Three Women, and this collection of short stories definitely had all the same skill that went into the actual crafting of these stories. But I felt that this was a tad misogynistic to be honest with you. It seemed like all the women in this book were vapid and self-obsessed and couldn't focus on anything but their weight. Had it only been once or twice, I would have excused the fat-shaming, but it really was one of the more pervasive things throughout the book and it got a little grating. I just didn't find the characters redeeming at all.

The book was well written though, and overall I would say this was just okay.

Dysfuntional. Disordered. Yearning. Alive. As with Lisa Taddeo's previous offerings Ghost Lover explores throughout 9 stories the complexities of womanhood in all its messy glory. I enjoyed this collection and remain in awe of Taddeo's distinctive knack for characterization.

Lisa Taddeo does it again! A fabulous collection of female-centric short stories that are sure to make you think.

I don't mind prickly or unlikeable characters but man this book was not fun to get through. The first story Ghost Lover especially seemed like all of the bad clichés and stereotypes about LA and Angelenos got thrown into a blender and regurgitated onto the page. The language can be quippy at times but for me the book as a whole left a bad taste in my mouth. I finished the book so there's that but I kind of struggled through every moment of it. I really enjoyed Three Women so I think I'll still to Lisa Taddeo's non-fiction works.

Many thanks to Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC

Lisa Taddeo has quickly become one of the most exciting voices in fiction. Truly, there's something remarkable to the brutal, if icky, turns each of her stories take. This is true with her collection, Ghost Lover. It feels like an extension of the universe she created in Animal (indeed, at least one story features a character named Joan). Perhaps some of the stories lack focus, but I more often than not come for Taddeo's particular voice, and the pure bravado of the story. 


Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

I haven’t stopped talking about this collection of short stores since I finished it. Each short story evoked more emotions than I thought possible in so few pages. My favorite was the final story “a suburban weekend.” Female friendship has never been written in a realer way to me.

A book of short stories by Three Women and Animal author, Lisa Taddeo. Her writing is flawless and biting. I do think, however, the author might have a tiny hatred of beautiful women. Her descriptions are very sly and also a bit scathing. Anyway, all the stories are well-told and my favorite was called Air Supply. A really good summer read.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book.*

Extremely raw and brutally honest look at women as they age and love and lose those they love. It’s interesting to see how the other side lives and how they think and what they feel. I didn’t connect with any of them but my perspective is definitely expanded. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I finished this in one sitting- thats when you know you really enjoy a book. I loved the short stories. I found myself wishing some were longer, because I got so invested. Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for the advanced reading copy- so appreciative!

This was my first ever book by Lisa Taddeo but I really enjoyed it. The stories were short and different. I loved the mention of modern culture and how relatable the women are. The characters weren’t trying to be heroes or a forced idea that was supposed to be inspiring which made me connected and I loved them.