SWALLOW THE GHOST by Eugenie Montague is a story told in three parts, two of which I really enjoyed, one not so much.

Jane Murphy is a social media writer who is paired with Jeremy Miller in creating fake accounts and a Twitter viral thriller. Working closely with Jeremy they are in on an experiment where they create an IT girl, raising her profile throughout Twitter. Let’s be honest, Jane is finally making it, all the while dealing with an eating disorder and not making the best decisions in either her professional or personal life. Jeremy, on the other hand has been languishing as a writer until he is partnered with Jane. They invent a 21 year old student who goes missing and follow the wave of the Twitter community as they try to figure out what happened to her. Then a shocking crime brings their collaboration to screeching halt and Jeremy is incarcerated. Enter Jesse Haber, a PI for the defence who was once a journalist and is now attempting to prove Jeremy‘s innocence.

I really enjoyed the first two parts of the book, however I’m not sure that the real mystery was ever solved. The last part of the book, however, left me scratching my head wondering what I missed. While interesting, some of it felt too fragmented from the first two parts for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

Thank you for the arc NetGalley. I unfortunately couldn’t connect with this book and dnfed. I couldn’t connect with a single character even at 20%.

This was such a creative, unique story! I went in relatively blind, and was overall glad I did—this was really unlike anything else I've read before, so I think it makes for an interesting reading experience. Like some other reviewers have mentioned, I liked the first part of the story the most, and thought it was so well-done, but while the writing was so strong throughout, I struggled a little with the latter two parts. Still, I think this book will be popular with many readers, particularly mystery/thriller fans! The author is clearly such an impressive storyteller, and I'm interested to see what she writes next. Thank you to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for the ARC.

A murder mystery divided into three parts. While many facets of this book will feel familiar to fans of the genre, Montague has crafted a compelling story about social media, true crime, and the obsession over missing/dead women. The risk with sectioning out a story into distinctly different perspectives is that inevitably the reader will like one or two over the others; for me, I favored Jane’s section, was neutral about Jesse, and found it difficult to get through Jeremy’s part at the end. Although I appreciated the author attempting a unique structure for the novel, I found that it hindered my reading experience. As for the actual narrative, it seemed to be leading somewhere profound and innovative without ever actually getting there. However, as far as debut authors go, Montague’s writing shows a lot of potential.

"Swallow the Ghost" was trying a little too hard in terms of plot and overall writing style. Even though I had problems with this book, I still found it intriguing. If you don't like repetitive writing, then this book might not be for you. Also, this book was too long. At least 50 pages should've been chopped off. Decent novel, but overall, somewhat of a disappointment.

This is a clever murder mystery in the guise of a study of an obsessive and talented young woman working successfully in social media marketing. The narration from different characters’ perspectives reveals that all may not be as the reader perceives. A very involving and intriguing story unfolds.

Objectively a good novel, and will find its audience. As a bookseller, I may not necessarily handsell this title, but I would order it for the store, as many of our customers would enjoy it and have insightful comments to make it.

"Swallow the Ghost" earns a solid 3 stars. The repetitive, Groundhog Day-style narrative for Jane felt overdone and detracted from my enjoyment. However, the story picked up in the middle with the introduction of the investigator, adding some much-needed intrigue. Despite this improvement, the ending left me feeling confused and unsatisfied.

This was definitely something very different from what I am accustomed to. The story is told in three parts that are all very different from one another.

The story starts with Jane telling her story about her life working for a company that tackles and writes social media stories. She talks about her experiences at work and the two men she has been dating. One being a coworker. Each day starts the same where she wakes up and goes for her morning run.

The meat and potatoes of the story is in the second part. We learn that someone has been murdered and a man is investigating for the accused to prove his innocence. I was completely captivated by this part. His personal struggles with his mother who has dementia hit a personal spot with me. I had a family member with dementia and it really crushed me.

Then we get to the third part and everything just changes. Here it focuses on a coworker of Jane’s and his success with writing. I think if you are a writer or are enthralled with one’s writing process, you will enjoy it.

All together I enjoyed the story. I did feel the ending was uneventful and wanted more closure. I will definitely read this author again and look forward to their next book.

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

I loved this! Told in three unique parts, we learn the story of Jane Murphy, a social media marketer. She has super complex routines and is a bit of an enigma in her relationships.

I think this is best one into relatively blindly - it is so different than anything I've read recently and worth your time!

Jane Murphy appears to have it all in New York, excelling as a rising star at a social media marketing startup. She's made a name for Jeremy Miller, an experimental writer, by helping him create a viral internet novel using various fake social media accounts. However, beneath this success, Jane feels confined by her routines and compulsions, trapped in a cycle of self-soothing and self-punishment. She hides much of this, especially as her professional relationship with Jeremy evolves into something more intimate.

The perspectives shift when something (it's best to go in blind for the shock factors), occurs. The story is then split into three parts, all following different people with distinct voices and perspectives.

This was an interesting read for me. I went into this book blind since the synopsis doesn't really offer up much, but I was pleasantly surprised. The turn the book takes following part one was shocking and had me hooked, but I must say that like many other reviews, I enjoyed the first part the most out of the three.

The writing style of Part One hooked me immediately, and I was very impressed by the presentation of Jane's cyclic routine in writing. The second part hooked me at the start, but I lost steam near the end of the act, even though it was enjoyable to read. The third part though, is why my rating is at a 3 star. I didn't feel like the third part was very necessary to the progression of the story, and I almost feel like I would have enjoyed the book more if it ended at part 2.

That said, the writing was the stand-out for me and I'm interested in whatever else this author writes!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: August 20th 2024

Writing fiction about writing fiction is a tough needle to thread. Do you approach with a wink and a nod? Total earnestness? Something else? Montague makes several interesting choices with the structure of this novel, some of which would have annoyed me under different circumstances. Here, they work as a device to illustrate the writing process and how real life is often so much less satisfying than pat fictional endings. The multiple POV characters present different ways of approaching writing, from an all consuming passion, to a workaday mentality, to limitless pretension. I’m still thinking about this book several days later, which is the highest compliment I can bestow.

thank you to mulholland books and netgalley for the e-arc!

okay. super intelligent and creative read! as everyone else said, the third section was my least favourite, but it still raised some interesting points and brought a fun new format into the mix, so that was cool.

overall really really impressive for a debut, i enjoyed it :)

Hauntingly intriguing, but confusing at times. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this book and I’m still not entirely sure what I read. I loved the eating disorder representation

Thank you NetGalley, Mulholland Books, and Eugenie Montague for the ARC of Swallow the Ghost. I loved this book so much. I'm not sure if I didn't fully read the description, or if I just forgot it by the time I started reading, but I did not know what I was going into with this book and I recommend that. It's told in 3 parts - part 1 was my favorite, it is from Jane's POV. In part 2 and 3 we read more about Jane's story, but from the perspective of other characters. Like other reviewers I didn't enjoy part 3 quite as much as part 1 or 2, but it wasn't bad. I still think the whole book was amazing, Montague addresses so many hard topics throughout this book in such a beautiful way. I will definitely keep an eye out for her future work!

An incredible debut novel that pushes boundaries, makes readers think, and does what any good book should make a reader do, keep turning the pages. Montague’s dynamic writing style is the perfect fit for this story.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing a digital copy of this book.

Beautifully written & deeply felt. This was an inch away from being a total masterpiece about perspective, ritual, loss, and human connection. I loved Jane’s and Jesse’s stories, but Jeremy’s section lost me. I know there’s a deeper meaning to his intellectualization/compartmentalization/avoidance of the plot, but I’m too annoyed by his writer-bro energy to hunt for it. Other than that, it’s absolute perfection and I highly recommend being haunted by this ghost.

4.5* - rounded up.
I really liked this debut book from author Eugenie Montague. It surprised me in a lot of ways.

In the first of three sections, we meet Jane - a young woman working in an up-and-coming PR firm. She's spearheading an internet mystery to raise the visibility of an author looking for representation for his new book. On the outside, Jane is successful and confident using her creativity and knowledge of how people think on the internet to craft this intricate fictional story that has gone viral. Inside, Jane is riddled with insecurities and needs small rituals to help her get through each day.
For fear of giving things away, I won't say much about the second or third section. I found the book fascinating and I'm still thinking about the questions it raises. While Montague takes her time telling the story, I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know where it was going.

Swallow the Ghost is out August 20. Thank you to #netgalley and Mulholland Books for this ARC.

Absolutely brilliant thriller. All the characters, from the victim to the suspects to the investigator, had so much depth. I could see them as people, with their own headaches and their own joys. I find that in many modern mysteries, authors devote less to characterization and more to the plot -- they give each character one or two defining traits and wipe their hands. Montague's indirect characterization was masterful, especially her characterizations of Jane and Jesse. By the end, I could empathize with all of the characters, and I was grateful for the open-ending, I could delude myself into believing that none of them did it.

Many thanks to Mulholland Books for the eARC, all thoughts were my own.

this book was unfortunately not it for me. I saw what the author was trying to do with the Lola Rennt vibes of starting the day over again, but it just became redundant and the rest of the book was not notable.