This was a thoroughly enjoyable collection of novellas all focusing on the dangers of stories and books. I loved the way the elements from each novella would pop up in others, giving the book as a whole a solid through line linking apparently disparate elements. I thought the characters were necessarily larger than life, which made the reading experience lots of fun and overall, I had a great time with this collection. This is the second Malfi offering I have read and enjoyed and I will definitely continue exploring his work.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is an amazing collection of tales. Each of the four has a scene when a printed word explodes from the page, killing a number of innocent persons in the process. Strongly advised!

Yikes I can’t handle a big horror novel so these novellas were just the right size. I could read (listen) to one and then move onto something lighter.

This was creepy but not can’t sleep at night scary.

I sometimes am in the mood for some horror stories but don’t want to dive into a massive time. Short stories and novellas fit the bill perfectly. Each of these stories were great and are definitely recommended for Stephen King fans.

I was given a NetGalley widget for this one a year ago and I just got around to reading it and dangit it was so good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have consumed this wildly relevant fictional tale, which felt not at all fictional, more like historical fiction, due to the times. The cover initially was what drew me in, but I'm so thankful to have stuck with it because the outcome was magical. I always love listening to audiobooks and when they sweep me off my feet, I'm just utterly captivated! I always really enjoy multi-cultural thrillers, for I embark on a journey through a land unknown to me, while still getting spooked.

An excellent collection of short stories to share with fans of Stephen King and Paul Tremblay. Review is here at https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/ghostwritten-2166406

This collection was a mixed bag. The Dark Brothers' Last Ride was really good, so was Skin of her Teeth. The other two were just okay; didn't really care for the choose your own adventure story. This collection did remind me a lot of King collections, which is a compliment!

Four Ronald Malfi horror novellas in one book with the slightest of links between them, but not enough of a link to prevent them from being enjoyed as standalone. This was the first time I was reading a book by this author and it was a good experience. The first three novellas were great, the last one didn't connect with me. Overall it was an okay read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ love Ronald Malfi and he does it again with this group of stories. Definitely worth checking out. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance audio copy.

Audio review: Great narrator. I've enjoyed his other work too.



Main review: This was a fun collection of novellas set around the concept that words and creativity are dangerous. Malfi is great at creating three dimensional characters who really live and breathe, as well as scenarios that would be creepy by anyone else's metric. (It's really hard to creep me out. My internal creep-o-meter is broken, I think! I keep trying.) The first story followed an agent who is desperately trying to make a deadline with her recalcitrant client's screenplay. However, not only is the screenplay not accessible, there's something wrong with the source material. A gleeful look at putting too much of yourself - or someone else - into your work. Then there was a novella featuring a pop-up book depicting a house and a child who just wants to be friends - easily the stand-out one for disturbing concepts. The other two novellas were also enjoyable. All in all this was a hit. There's just something that doesn't quite connect for me with Malfi's work, or rather hasn't entirely yet. It's clearly superior horror but I'm waiting for the wow factor, maybe? Probably a me problem and I definitely want to read more. This book is great if you want a selection of shorter reads in the horror vein.

This book is a collection of four short horror Novellas.

The first one is The Skin of her Teeth which follows an author who is meant to write a script for the movie adaptation of a famous book.But he is missing for sometime and already crossed the timeline.The agent goes in search of the author to witness some horrible things.This is my least favorite

The second one is The Dark Brothers' Last Ride which is about two brothers who is meant to deliver a briefcase containing a precious book to a hotel .There are rules to follow like don't open the briefcase or touch the book.Also a map to follow through which it must be delivered.They never thought this delivery would turnout much harder and horrid.

The third one is This Book Belongs to Olo which follows a weird ten year old boy named Olo.He doesn't have any friends and he is home schooled.He creates a paper fold house of his real house but the popup house have actual levers which controls the real one.How creepy is that!!..I think this one is my personal favorite and gave me an unsettling vibe.

The fourth one is The Story is mainly written like a choose your own adventure type story.This was brilliant and amusing and the consequences out of it is unique.

The most wonderful thing about these novellas are these are mainly circled around books and authors.The idea and concept is praiseworthy and as always loved Ronald Malfi's writing.

This was in interesting read, four novellas related to books that are relatively terrifying, I didn't absolutely love these novellas, however, it was an incredibly interesting idea, especially since they're all linked in some way. I haven't read Ronald Malfi before, but I am a huge fan of horror, which is why I requested this audiobook. The narrator was definitely easy to listen to, which made this more enjoyable.

This is the perfect fall read, especially around Halloween! As a compilation of 4 short stories by Ronald Malfi, this book is easy to read each story individually or all at once. For me, I prefer to read one and then come back in between longer books to read more. My two favorite stories from this book were The Skin of Her Teeth and The Story. I read the first two stories and listened to the last two and I would recommend this book either way. The narrator, Joe Hempel did an excellent job. This book is perfect for horror fans looking for a short and fast read! I’m giving this 3.5 out of 5 stars, rounding up to 4 on goodreads.

A big thank you to Titan Books, Tantor Audio, NetGalley, and Ronald Malfi for providing me with both the ebook and audio copies in exchange for my honest review.

Ghostwritten by Ronald Malfi is made up of 4 novellas and it’s the perfect Spooky Season Read. These 4 short stories are about books and manuscripts which all tied into one another. Are short stories and horror your jam? If so, Ghostwritten is definitely for you. Ronald Malfi is such a creative, spooky horror writer. His works are so mesmerizing and hard to put down. And Ghostwritten was no different.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publisher, Titan Books and Tantor Audio for both a digital copy as well as an audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review. I very much enjoyed the reading experience. Listening while reading along has become one of my favorite ways to binge read books at record speed.

I didn’t know anything about this book except that Ronald Malfi was the author and I couldn’t say no. This was a memorable collection for sure. Overall, I’d give this 4 stars. Some stories I enjoyed more than others but overall it was an enjoyable read. I highly recommend this spooky collection found within the pages of Ghostwritten.

Enjoyment: 4
Total rating: 4.57

Each novella in Ghostwritten felt like a full-length book. Each is complete in its own way, with great characterization and unique plots. I am unsure how this man keeps getting his ideas, but I am glad he does! The only caveat is that four novellas felt like too much to me. Possibly because I wanted to read it in one sitting but had to put the book down to appreciate each story. I listened to the audiobook while I waited for my physical copy to arrive, and Joe Hempel is a great narrator. I loved his pacing and narration choices.

As with any compilations, some stories speak more to one than others, and my favourites are, hands down, "This Book Belongs to Olo" and "The Story." They are so original and take the horror up a notch by taking seemingly innocent things, such as a child's book and a choose-your-own-adventure and turning them into the stuff that makes nightmares.

I also enjoyed "The Skin of Her Teeth." Again, extremely creative and funny. It read like a noir movie and intrigued me from beginning to end.

The only novella I won't reread as much as the others is "The Dark Brothers." It is bizarre and has the dark humour that works for me, but it has this "trippy" quality that didn't work for me as I couldn't evoke the images in my mind.

As a final note, it takes guts for an author to make books the theme of a very effective horror collection.

Disclaimer: In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to the publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of Ghostwritten

This was my first Malfi read, and now I'm more eager to reach for the copy of 'Little Girls' that's been staring at me from my tbr cart for way too long now!
'Ghostwritten' is a clever collection of 4 creepy, tension-building, character-driven novellas, with books being the key characters in each deliciously dark story. Let them pull you in and take you down their dark and twisted ways!

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

I received this first as a book from Netgalley, but by the time I was ready to read it, there was also an audiobook version available, so I received that from Negalley also. I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ronald Malfi is fast becoming one of my all time favorite horror authors. Ghost Written is the second book by Malfi I have read (the first being Blackmouth (you can find my review here)). I really liked the book in both mediums (book and audiobook format).

I'm a voracious reader (I have read about 85 books so far this year, which is pretty typical for me), so the theme of cursed books was intriguing to me. I was not disappointed!

In The Skin of Her Teeth, a cursed novel will stop at nothing to remain unedited and unchanged, even kill! I really liked this one alot -- it was actually probably my favorite of the bunch. The book in this story took on a monster quality and seemed to have a mind of its own. I really liked the ending (but I won't spoil it).

In The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride, two guys have to deliver a package, a book -- should be easy right? The problem: the delivery comes with certain instructions, ones that the brothers decide not to follow. This novella has elements of alternate realities / dimensions and I really liked it!

In This Book Belongs to Olo, Olo is the child of rich parents -- his only problem is that he has no friends. With his magical pop-up book at his side, he decides to get friends any way he can, even if that means trapping them forever. This was not my favorite story. I would have liked to know how Olo came to have this book and/or how he came to have the power to make this book magical.

Lastly, in The Story, a journalist is investigating the apparent suicide of his ex-girlfriend. What he finds is a strange dark web choose-your-own-adventure story. Could this be the reason for her death? Reading this story via audiobook was a little confusing because sometimes the POV would switch to the characters in the adventure story. I think this one might be better read than listened to.

I love this author, so I can't recommend his books enough!

Thank you to Ronald Malfi and NetGalley for this Audio-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

Sometimes books aren't what they appear to be. This book is a collection of four horror stories involving books. How can a story be a bad thing? Just you wait!!

Any fan of Ronald Malfi this is a can't miss audiobook. I received this as an audiobook and highly recommend that this is the way to devour this book! The narrator has the best creepy voices that adds to the spookiness of these short-stories.

This book wasn’t for me. Although I love the genre. I was disappointed in the stories. Thank you NetGalley for providing this advanced copy audiobook and many thanks to the publisher