The Ghosts of Nothing

Book Review 📚
The Ghosts of Nothing by Cecily Walters - 4.5/5 ⭐

I AM SO HAPPY THIS IS A SERIES!

I want to just leave it as that to be perfectly honest, because there isn't anything I can say that will make this book look as good as it was!

Nelly - the poor girl can't catch a break. Bullied throughout school, feared/hated and the unwanted centre of attention. And then one day, everything changes for her! In a good way or in a bad way? I'll let you find out!

Honestly, I was not expecting this book to be as good as it was. And the cover did not lead me to believe it was a completely different genre to what it actually is! I don't want to give anything away, AT ALL, so I'm saying the bare minimum. But you HAVE to read it. It's incredible.

Walters needs to continue writing for the rest of her life. She has now become an author in which I will buy instantly because of how good the book was. It's an award worthy book. Phenomenal writing, beautiful written characters and so much description you feel like you're there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Cecily Walters for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion.

I received this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to love this book. it started out a little slow but the second half of the book was amazing.

Nelly is seen as a freak by her peers for the sole transgression of her having the Morighan name, a family who are blamed for every misfortune to ever befall the town of Nothing. Could they be on to something?

I related to Nelly in a lot of ways. I was outcast growing up, bullied by my peers for being too timid, too mousey, too, everything that the popular girls and boys weren't.

There's a moment when her frenemy is exposed to a sort of love powder and begins expressing her love for Nelly. I got the impression that Bianca's feelings weren't entirely down to the effects of the powder but didn't want to admit that she liked both a girl and one from the Morighan family. She'd shown that she could have cared for Nelly well before this when she stood up to her friends.

The idea of maple keys opening portals into the fairy world was genius, I wouldn't be surprised if people started collecting maple keys. It gave me the same sort of feeling after I'd seen Peter Pan for the first time and waiting up at night hoping he'd arrive at my window. Imagination is a powerful thing and a collection of maple keys, imagining that they can take us away from this world for a little bit, well, I think that would be pretty cool.

I hope that we get more stories with Nelly, Bianca, Fig, Doed and Jack and that we finally meet Nelly's mother.

I loved this book! The story kept my interest and the book was well written. The story was fun and moved at a good pace. 10/10 highly recommend! Special Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of the book prior to publication.

*This review will be posted on Goodreads July 18, 2023.

I picked this book thinking it was more of a horror then a fantasy and my gosh am I not disappointed.

Told like a fairytale through the eyes of Nelly, our main character, described as strange from the first chapter, she is mistreated purely for her family name who are blamed for all the weird things that happen in their town. Persecuted and bullied her whole life, she clearly is haunted
and at times i worried for her well being.

This book knows how to build tension and i found myself completely on edge for most of the book. The plot is twisty and unpredictable and constantly took me by surprise or left me shocked. The imagery was beautiful and kept me engrossed until the end. The supernatural elements were intriguing and well fleshed out and the character development made Nelly feel like a real person.

I highly recommend this for anyone who like dark supernatural, adventure coming of age stories!

The Ghosts of Nothing
Cecily Walters
4.5/5 Stars

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This was a brilliant book, I honestly think it will go down as one of my favourites of 2023. An urban fantasy inspired by Irish folktales and lore, the author knows her stuff. She has a deep understanding of her source material and this shines throughout her book. This book feels instantly accessible, yes, we don’t know everything and we are as confused as Nelly is with the capricious fairy around her but that doesn’t disincentivize you from continuing to read. Nelly is an emotional mature teenager and while you will definitely feel anger at the teenagers around her, you can feel her loneliness throughout. Even with her Grandmother (so formal and stiff) her step grandfather (Mr Granville) she has no one in her corner/

Revenge and Forgiveness are the themes of this book, weaving throughout with a dark creepy malevolence seeping from every page, the imagery of the world around Nelly is fantastically built by the author.

Random thoughts while reading:
Very strong opening chapter, those first 10 or so pages really slap
Karma and Revenge
History of the character is taught to the reader not told.
Grandmother is a surprisingly protective badass
The dangers that stem from a teenagers ignorance and fearlessness
Magic system is very clever in the fairy world
Pacing in the later third of the book was very good.

Loved this book so much I read it in one sitting! The characters were amazing, the storyline has lots of twists and turns keeping me interested throughout and wanted to know more! Hopefully this is a series because I’d love to see where it could go!

The cover intrigue me, and I was rewarded with a comfortable place to pass a few hours. Cecily Walters has written an entertaining fantasy novel which should suit YR and up. A stand alone read, but the first in a series - which is good news. Thank you to Cecile Walters and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

The Ghosts of Nothing is such a great book. I went into this pretty much not knowing what to expect and I loved it. The story is about Nelly and how she is treated by her community and finding out about fairies. She is a great main character, smart, strong, and funny. The other characters were very well done as well, the fairies were interesting and I can't wait to learn more about Doed, Jack, and the gang. And while the townsfolk were horrible, the characters were very well done. I enjoyed watching Bianca at the end of the book, I hope she stays nice. While it was a tiny bit slow at the very beginning, it flew by. I like this author's writing style, she really knows how to tell a story. I can't wait to read more!