Ghost on Black Mountain

by Ann Hite

ONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER.

Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late. Hobbs wasn’t nothing but trouble. He’d even killed a man. No telling what else. That mountain was haunted, and soon enough, Nellie would feel it too. One way or another, Hobbs would get what was coming to him. The ghosts would see to that. . . .

Told in the stunning voices of five women whose lives are inextricably bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina, Ann Hite’s unforgettable debut spans generations and conjures the best of Southern folk-lore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and the incomparable beauty of the Appalachian landscape.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Ghosts, Paranormal, Southern, Gothic, Horror

341 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2011

About the author

Ann Hite’s debut novel, Ghost On Black Mountain, not only became a Townsend Prize Finalist but won Georgia Author of the Year in 2012. Her personal essays and short stories have been published in numerous national anthologies. The Storycatcher, her second Black Mountain novel, will be released by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster on September 10th. Lowcountry Spirit, an eBook novella, is available from Pocket Star, also an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Ann is an admitted book junkie with a library of over a thousand books. She lives in Smyrna, Georgia with her husband and daughter, where she allows her Appalachian characters to dictate their stories.

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely southern story of several women and dang ole hateful Hobbs. I really enjoy the way this author weaves a story.
She mixes in southern folklore, ghosts and life lessons in a way that sweeps you into the story and you don't want it to end.

[Sonja Arlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always find the idea of ghost stories appealing but am disappointed more often than not. So this story was a rare treat.

Newly married 17-year-old Nellie Pritchard moves to Black Mountain to start a life with her charming husband Hobbs Pritchard.

Life is not easy on the mountain but Nellie wants to give it her best shot. But every time she reaches out to the community she gets rejected, her husband leaves her alone for days at a time and she becomes nothing more than a prisoner in the big old house.

Slowly she discovers that her handsome, amiable husband is really a vicious, murderous bootlegger feared by the entire community, but the worst is yet to come.

When Hobbs starts beating her knowing full well that his family will turn a blind eye soft spoken Nellie is driven to breaking point and something must give.

And then Hobbs and Nellie both disappear off the mountain. No one knows what happened to either of them but some have their suspicions.

The story takes you deeply into the lives, loves, and losses of the characters, living and dead, making you care about their stories. Each narrator added a layer of depth to the story with all five of these women showing strong yet flawed character. I liked all of them but think Shelly and Nellie were my favourites.

This was a wonderfully atmospheric, at times dark southern tale and if you enjoyed this you may want to look at The Storycatcher as well.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely the best book I read this year. I could not put it down! It's the story of Nellie Pritchard and 4 other women whose lives are all connected by one man. They each take a turn telling their story as it relates to Hobbs Pritchard. It's a different kind of ghost story and I am happy to learn that the author is working on more books involving some of the same characters. Combine Alice Hoffman with Sue Monk Kidd and you've got Ghost on Black Mountain. I LOVED THIS!

FROM AMAZON:
Told in the stunning voices of five women whose lives are inextricably bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina, Ann Hite’s unforgettable debut spans generations and conjures the best of Southern folk-lore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and the incomparable beauty of the Appalachian landscape.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nellie was 17 when she met Hobbs Pritchard and despite that her mamma (who reads tea leaves) said no good would come of it, she marries him and sets off to live on Black Mountain. Despite the beautiful trees,flowers and waterfall, things are not as they appear on the mountain There are haints, secrets and a lot of hate, especially for her husband. After a terror filled night and a horrible act, Nellie leaves the mountain and is not seen again for a long time. This is a very dark, haunting story told by 5 different women who all either lived on the mountain or had something to do with Hobbs Pritcahrd. After many years have passed and an accident with a fatality occurs Nellie has no choice but to go back to the mountain and with that the book comes full circle. Really a good read.

[Carol Kean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Hite's debut novel "Ghost on Black Mountain" has enough Gothic horror and suspense to keep us reading until the candle burns out in the dark of night, and enough meaning to keep scholars arguing for years to come. Hite's seamless and economical prose may make for easy reading, but look again. This novel is loaded. Bold, brilliant and beautiful, it has all the richness and depth of 19th C literature without the tedious, wordy prose.

The story sounds deceptively simple--a charismatic stranger comes to town and sweeps innocent young Nellie off her feet, but instead of happily ever-after, Mama sees death in the tea leaves. Nellie, like all young girls who know their own heart, blows off the warning. "Mama was just desperate to keep me home. There wasn't nothing bad going to happen. I didn't much believe in tea leaves anyway."

I marvel at Ann Hite's confidence and authority in establishing Nellie's voice. Could she pull it off in all six sections of the novel with their various points of view? Yes. Yes, yes yes! All the women of Black Mountain are so convincing, you can't help but nod an "amen" even if they're telling you ghost stories. Mostly, they're busy telling Nellie the same thing her Mama did: anyone who'd marry Hobbes Pritchard is either crazy in the head or so young she has no sense.

"If you want to know how Nellie Pritchard got herself into the mess she did," Mama tells us in Part Two, "you got to know parts of my story." Mothers will shake their heads in sympathy every time Josie Clay talks about parenting. "The good Lord knew I did my best to send (Nellie) in the right direction just like my mama did me and her mama did her. It's a weakness trying to keep our daughters from making the same mistakes." In section six Annie Harbor, both a mother and a daughter, reminds us: "Mamas can't protect their daughters. Not really. They're helpless to watch and wait."

Josie Clay knows the story by heart because it's universal. She didn't need a college degree to gain Goethe's insight that "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished." Josie's own mama warned her that "if I married, I wasn't going to see anything but struggles. Did I listen? Shoot, no." One look at Owen Clay and "I fell in love with him. As if I knew what love was. In front of me stood what I wanted more than anything, and I figured if he had any wrongs, I could iron them right out like a wrinkled shirt dress. Lord, that's the worst thing a woman can do, love a man so much she can't see reason." And so her daughter Nellie's story opens doors that women like Josie have held tightly shut for hundreds of years.

While women's issues are a strong part of this novel, the American Gothic elements will rivet a wider audience. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense pervade Nellie's world. Hobbes isolates her in a large, dusty old house that's been in his family for years. Instead of welcoming young Mrs. Pritchard, locals shun her or warn her to run for her life. Hobbes Pritchard is evil, and they have no qualms about saying so to his well-meaning wife. Everyone on the mountain, living or dead, warns Nellie to leave, but young love is so stubborn, it can take a gradual series of escalating abuse before a bride moves out of denial into awareness, then horror and remorse. Certain locals who talk to Nellie look and sound human but turn out to be ghosts. And all of them have an axe to grind with Hobbes. Hurry, they whisper, but before Nellie will dare to leave Hobbes, she has to uncover his secrets. Local legends, spooky voices and artifacts in the attic charge Nellie's world with supernatural terror and real-life danger.

Hite's strong, enigmatic women characters make us want more, and she delivers. Her next novel shines the spotlight on Shelly Parker, the ghost-whisperer of Black Mountain who downplays her own intelligence and talent because a good black servant girl knows her place. If there's one flaw in this novel, it's that Shelly's section is far too short. More Shelly! We want more of her stoic wisdom mixed with fearlessness and compassion. She is a survivor. "Nellie Pritchard was the first white person to treat me like a regular girl," she tells us. On hearing "Nellie, call me Nellie," not Mrs. Pritchard, Shelly with a hand on her hip says, "No, ma'am, it ain't proper." At 14 she is far more savvy and mature than her 18-year-old employer. Their dialogue is piercingly funny, especially when Nellie earns her trust and Shelly has the audacity to tell it like it is.

The relationship between Nelly and the servant girl brings to mind Kathryn Stockett's best selling novel The Help. Both Hite and Stockett expose the hypocrisy of an era, deftly weaving history and social issues into the fascinating and complex relationships of maids and mistresses, husbands and wives, neighbors and members of the community.
Ann Hite is such a keen observer of human nature, even her ghosts are believable. While science has yet to prove the spirit outlives the body, documented testimonials from people across time and continents bear witness to the same type of ghost sitings Hite describes. The ghost may look and act like a living human. Frequently, the living will describe a personage they've never seen or heard of before, and the description matches an actual person who died. Science has no explanation for that, but the good folk on Black Mountain do. Death is not the end. And the sins of our fathers can have repercussions that last and last across the generations.

With beautiful prose, memorable characters and haunting themes, Ann Hite is as certain to impress scholars with her multi-layered exploration of women's issues and the dark side of human nature as she is to win the hearts of the reading public for generations to come.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I read The Storycatcher by same author a year or so ago and loved it. I don't know why it took me so long to read the second one, but it's definitely a mistake I won't be repeating. I loved the characters - they were real, and did not feel like the normal Southern stereotypes. Even Hobbs, which is probably one of the most evil characters I've met before, shows his softer side at times. Although all five voices are the voices of strong but damaged women, they all sounded very different from each other. I really enjoyed the fact that the stories are not told in chronological order, and each story reveals more layers. I highly recommend this authors books if you enjoy beautifully written Southern literature.
The Story: Seduced into marriage by the charismatic Hobbs Pritchard, 17-year-old Nellie Pritchard moves with him to Black Mountain, where she discovers her handsome, amiable husband is really a vicious, murderous bootlegger feared by the entire community. Worse still, Hobbs is haunted by the spirits of his victims, who soon begin to haunt Nellie, too.

[Tara Rock · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-l/2 stars.

[Cher 'N Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - It was really good.

In the last few days of October, I finally found a book to satisfy the Halloween read craving. This had the perfect mix of the supernatural and southern goth to form a really enjoyable ghost story. The next time I find myself in the Appalachian mountains, I know I will think of Nellie and Hobbs...always a sign of great storytelling.

-------------------------------------------
Favorite Quote: All our actions travel a road that comes home to us at some point.

First Sentence: Mama warned me against marrying Hobbs Pritchard.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN is a spellbinding Southern Gothic about dark secrets, murder, ghosts and revenge. The story is told from the points of view of five women, each one connected in some way to Hobbs Pritchard and Black Mountain, North Carolina. Hobbs was an evil man. A criminal. An abuser. A murderer. But he was also deceptively charming and handsome, and easily won young Nellie's heart. It was during the Great Depression that he married Nellie and brought her to live on the mountain. It only takes a short time for her to see the real Hobbs and to realize her life is in danger, and there's only one way for her to get off that mountain. Unfortunately for Nellie, her secrets won't stay buried forever.

This was an amazing book, one that I will think about long after finishing. I love how the book was constructed with each narrators' point of view in a separate section, and each part added more depth to the story as a whole. All five of these women were strong yet flawed, and I connected to each one. Even the ghosts and the mountain itself were compelling characters in this eerie tale.

GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN had me captivated from the first page. The tone of the story was dark and unnerving, and there were many surprising twists and chilling moments throughout the story. This was more than a ghost story. It was also a testament to the powerful bond between a mother and child that nothing, not even death, can break. GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN has a place on my keeper shelf. I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

I received my copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book that stays in your mind even after you close the cover and move on to your next read? Ghost on Black Mountain is that kind of book. The story is told in the voices of five very different women who all have a connection to the same man, Hobbs Pritchard. Some love him, most hate him. He is a monster of a man and one of these women killed him. His ghost haunts Black Mountain and stories about him are told to children to scare them and get them to behave.

This was an absolutely wonderful book. I loved how each women tells her own story about how she is tied to Hobbs. We get very different perspectives on this man through the eyes and voice of these women. I enjoyed exploring the depths that a mother would go to to protect her child or try to. Seeing how secrets can do so much harm. I found myself asking myself numerous times what I would have done if I were in the shoes of any of these women.

I cared about every single character and my heart broke for Iona and what she went through because of lies and secrets. The one person I would have loved to see more of is Jack, the brother of Hobbs. I felt that he has a story of his own to tell that was touched on but never truly explored. I would be very interested to hear his side of things.

Family relationships, spirits, secrets, love, this book has it all and I was up very late finishing it. Highly recommended.

[Jan W. Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rating this book five stars because I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Not all books are noble. Ghost on Black Mountain isn't great literature; it will not be taught in classrooms 400 years from now. Big deal. I was totally entertained, and there isn't one thing wrong with entertaining people and enhancing lives.

If we're honest, we all have pasts, skeletons in the closet, secret sins. Young Nellie married out of childish infatuation, ushering in an evil force that affected lives for generations. Told between the years of 1938 and the late 1950s by the women touched by the evil that was Hobbs Pritchard, Nellie's husband, they explain their loves, losses, mistakes, and their roles in the ways that their lives intertwined. In the end, we see the healing power and the freedom of truth.

Picked as a Boo Read since it is October, this will stay on my shelf! Ghosts and violent deaths run throughout, but it's a book for anytime of year.

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviews should not grade expectation but what a book is; with a reflection of enjoyment. Spirits were merely sprinkled into content I would not have chosen. This is a family saga about one horrible marriage and better men, who were simply not ideal matches. I seek adult fiction specifically about experiencing spirits; not hard-luck dramas. However, this is exceptionally well-written. It blends five women’s perspectives so compellingly, it would be remiss not to give Ann Hite high marks. The focal point is Nellie but light is shed on the feelings of her Mother, Jackie; her daughter, Iona; her sole mountain friend, Shelly; and her horrid husband’s true love, Rose.

In a nutshell, the creep is charmed by Nellie’s moral likeness to his Mother and sister and convinces her to hastily marry someone she doesn’t know. It turns out he is justifiably dreaded by all except one aunt and the girl he should have chosen. Crafted ingeniously into sections that aren’t chronological until Iona’s period; Nellie’s eventual, secret departure from Black Mountain segues into a portrait of family life with her Mom and Dad. We hone in on Shelly’s encounters with ghosts and see why she reluctantly warned Nellie to flee. We shift to Rose, whom the creep courts through his short marriage; even though he demands that Nellie not pursue anyone.

Nellie preferred his stepbrother, Jack; who reluctantly tells her and Rose, the creep was a murderer. She settles with her Mom in her Dad’s hometown. I grew riveted in response to twists Ann created for the musically-gifted Iona, twenty years later. They fit all of the detail she wove into the whole book, with brilliance. Readers will know all the characters well and root for them. The author’s intricate diffusion of her story allows us to understand it completely.

[Jennifer Theriault · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book on vacation.

Started out pretty good. Nellie marries walking red flag Hobbs Pritchard and he moves them up to a creepy old house on Black Mountain. What follows is an in-depth story of Nellie's abusive relationship mixed with spooky southern eeriness. There may be a ghost in Nellie's house that implies her husband Hobbs isn't just a sketchy abuser-he's dangerous.

There's a lot of that southern secret-keeping and "we don't take kindly to your type round here" and so on. It's a little frustrating because it just manufactures drama because characters won't spit out things that need to be said.

Eventually, Nellie is forced to kill Hobbs, lest he eventually kill her. The story does a great job of building the dread and tension. She flees Black Mountain but the story isn't nearly over.

And after Nellie's part, the story takes a turn for the worse. It gets more maudlin, improbable and even boring.

*spoilers below*

Like, of course Hobbs had secret girlfriend with whom he had a son. And of course Nellie was pregnant when she killed Hobbs and later had a daughter and of course this daughter and son eventually meet and fall in love and then he dies and she's pregnant BUT WAIT she gets an abortion of her secret incest baby. It's all very tragic.

By the end I was rolling my eyes. While I appreciated the variety of women in the story, the men were either monsters or long-suffering saints. I mean really, Nellie's daughter marries the man she cheated on with her late half-brother and he agrees to name one of his sons after the man she cheated with? In what universe, seriously. Plus I was supposed to think Nellie committed this horrible unforgivable crime by murdering Hobbs after he brutally raped her and abused her their whole marriage? So horrible she had to hide her secret and her current husband had to forgive her? Murdering people is wrong of course, but geez, it was self-defense for the most part.

All in all the story was just meh and too soapy for me. Nellie's arc was really good and would have made a great book on its own but then it just kept going on and on.

[Kathleen Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd Give It Six Stars If I Could!



From the moment I started reading “Ghost On Black Mountain,” Nellie Pritchard walked into my heart and took up residence. And she didn’t come alone. Others followed.

Along with four other women who narrate this page-turning tale, young Nellie must learn the hard way that sometimes our choices in life will haunt us forever. All five women are intricately connected to one man, Hobbs Pritchard, the menace of Black Mountain. A mean-spirited moonshiner who runs this Depression era mountain village like a crime boss, Hobbs first woos young Nellie Clay from a church soup line in Ashville where she and her mama are serving folks worse off than themselves. Hobbs cast his spell over this naïve seventeen-year-old with his smooth talking ways and blue eyes that made Nellie “see life his way in an instant.”

Despite her mama’s warnings – she saw death in the tea leaves - Nellie marries Hobbs Pritchard and they head back up the mountain to a big drafty house with a gigantic fireplace and a window that overlooks the nearby woods and tumbling river. It’s the view from this window where Nellie gets her first warning that her life with Hobbs, who she barely knows anything about, has put her in danger.

In this beautifully crafted story, so rich and vivid in character and voice, warnings appear to Nellie in many forms. First there’s the man standing at the edge of the woods, then a young black girl who can see things beyond her years, and a gentle woman standing at the bottom of the stairs. But will Nellie heed their advice and go home to her mama, or ignore their warnings and keep suffering under the cruel hands of her husband?

Sightings of ghosts, missing persons, and tightlipped neighbors all play a part in this drama where people are hesitant to talk for fear of their lives or reputations. Even when I wasn’t reading, I was conjuring up these characters in my head. I found myself thinking in their voices. Wondering what was going to happen next. Nellie, Josie, Shelly, Rose, and Iona were pulling me back to Black Mountain. To unfinished business. These women had stories to tell and I was their captive audience.

There are so many good lines in this novel, too many to mention in a brief review.

But the two lines that stopped me in my tracks and seem to embody everything good about Ann Hite’s novel, come at the end of a scene when Nellie’s mama, Josie Clay, is reflecting on a comforting visit from her own mother shortly after her mother’s death: “Mama loved me enough to come see me before she left the world. She wasn’t no ghost, just a spirit on its way to heaven. Amen.”

Like the mountain itself – populated with strong women, restless spirits, and unspeakable secrets – once this story gets in your blood, you can never leave it.

I highly recommend this book. I’d give it six stars if I could!

Kathleen M. Rodgers ~ author of the award-winning novel “The Final Salute”

A note of disclosure: I read an advanced copy from the publisher.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the perfect October read! Ghost on Black Mountain by author Ann Hite is everything the cover says it is; haunting, eerie, dark and unnerving. Told in the voices of five different women who all have different portions of the story to tell, the author did an excellent job of binding the story together in those separate voices. The story is set in rural depression-era North Carolina, we first meet Nellie, a young girl who, while serving meals in a soup kitche n, meets and falls head over heals for Hobbs Pritchard, a man eight years her senior. Nellie's mama immediately see's that Hobbs is a bad man and what she see's in her tea leaves confirms this fear. Ignoring her mama's warnings, Nellie runs off and marries Hobbs anyway. He immediately moves her to his empty, (or is it?) family home on Black Mountain.

One of my favorite quotes from this early time in the story:
'In the first days of sweet romance, if Hobbs had asked me to jump off a cliff, I would have with a smile on my face. Mama always said, "Nellie, don't love a man too much. A woman should save some feelings back to care for herself."

Nellie soon finds that the people of the mountain both hate and fear Hobbs Pritchard, but she still thinks that her husband must be mis-understood. Soon into the marriage, Hobbs cruel side starts showing itself to Nellie. According to Hobbs, his young wife is dumb, lazy and a horrible cook when in reality, Nellie is none of those things. Right away Nellie starts to see a few of Black Mountains ghosts. There is the woman who seems to live right in Nellie and Hobbs home and the man in the round glasses that is summoning her from outside. Shelley, the young girl who is hired to help Nellie clean the long neglected house, is scared but likes Nellie and slowly starts to give her some hints of Hobbs bad reputation. They say he killed a man here on the mountain and there are stories of the untimely death of his stepmother, along with a few other very disconcerting stories. As Hobbs cruelty to Nellie increases, she trys to find ways to leave, but Hobbs will never let her go. Will the ghosts of Black Mountain aid her? You'll have to read to find out.

I loved this book. It is the authors debut and I will definately be waiting for her next one to be realeased!

[Shari Sweeney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a promising start but then seemed unsure of what it wanted to be -- mystery? fantasy? coming of age? family saga? -- and not enough elements of any of those genres. The final portion of the book, looking at Nellie Pritchard's life after escaping Black Mountain, I found completely implausible, as if the author were trying too hard to tie everything previous together. I kept saying "oh, come ON" a lot -- not a good thing.

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 brilliant stars. Growing up, my family visited Black Mountain, North Carolina, and I must admit, though always beautiful, the mountain was eerie. I also vaguely recall some of the ghost stories, which still circulate today. What I loved: the sense of place, the characters, the rich emotion, the beautiful and haunting writing. The only thing that kept it from a 5 star read for me was the ending (no spoilers). I'm thrilled to discover there are more Black Mountain books from Hite!

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it! can't wait to read more from her about these characters!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was up reading this well after midnight when I heard strange noises in the house. This being a Carolina mountain ghost story, I shouldn't have been surprised when my closet rod gave way and all my clothes heaved themselves to the floor...but boy did I jump!

Part One, Nellie's story, is the longest sectiob and by far the most engaging and would have suited me fine as a novella. Based on those first 100 or so pages alone this book would garner a high four stars, but (spoiler alert) the voices that follow aren't as strong and the twist of Nellie's (Annie's) daughter Iona meeting her hal-brother Lonnie and falling in love was at once too predictable and too improbable.

A few favorite lines (p. 74) "January closed in around me like a pack of hungry wolves cornering a lost traveler."

The scene on page 127 where she prepares the body for burial is beautifully written.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://charlotteswebofbooks.blogspot....

Ghost on Black Mountain is a tale told by five women over many years. Five women bound by one common thread. Hobbs Pritchard and a dark murder that took place on Black Mountain. Ghost on Black Mountain is a Gothic tale if ever there was one. It is a suspenseful, dark glimpse of what life was like in the mountains of North Carolina not all that long ago. I am really surprised at how much I enjoyed Ghost on Black Mountain, but Nellie's story, and her strength, captivated me in ways I did not expect. If you are a fan of Gothic Ghost stories, you will not be disappointed by Ann Hite's debut novel, her haunting tale of Black Mountain will stick with you for quite a while!

[Darcus Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghost On Black Mountain was definitely one of the best books that I have read this year. I couldn't get enough of it and when I wasn't reading it, I wanted to be.

From the very beginning, the story draws you in and doesn't let go even long after you've turned the last page. I don't know what I expected this book to be, but it was a million times better. I felt for this book in a way only few books can manage. Anne Hite is an absolutely beauitful, brilliant, seductive writer and she bring the Appalachia's and Nellie's ghost story to life.

I felt like crying at the end of the book, but not because the book was sad. I felt like crying because I didn't want it to end. I will never, never forget this book. I will definitely be re-reading it in the future.

[Majanka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the review on my website.

Ghost on Black Mountain is a powerful, eerie and haunting tale of real-life ghosts sometimes tormenting and sometimes aiding the inhabitants of Black Mountain, a gloomy and according to some, cursed place. Black Mountain got most of its rather creepy reputation from one of its most dangerous residents, Hobbs Pritchard. Who Hobbs Pritchard really is, a straight-out bad man, or a fellow struggling with himself and his own emotions, is revealed gradually through-out the story, but most of it is still up to the reader to decide. In this haunting debut novel, Ann Hite searches for what evil truly is, how different those we easily claim to be evil are to those who truly love them, and how one person’s evil acts can reflect on the lifes of others, even many years in the future.

I have to say that, several hours after finishing this book, I’m still perplexed and most of all, impressed. Ann Hite’s writing fits the voice of the narrators – five Southern women at the turn of the 20th century, all the way through the war, and beyond that – perfectly. She describes Black Mountain as an eerie, terrifying but also atmospheric and sometimes even inviting place, a beauty in daylight but a true menace in the dark. Our resident back guy, Hobbs Pritchard is a fellow with many layers, equally as many different faces and a whole lot of trouble written all over him. Although charming at first glance, he proves to be anything but. But is he really the villain we portray him to be, or is there more to him than meets the eye?

The first heroine who tells us her version of the tale is Nellie, soon-to-be Nellie Pritchard. Falling head over heels with Hobbs Pritchard, she goes against her mother’s advices and marries the man eight years her senior. Although he threats her decently enough at first, it doesn’t take long before even Nellie registers that Hobbs is a cruel, unsympathetic and mean man. He threats the people of Black Mountain like dirt, eagerly keeping them poor to gain wealth for himself. One of the families most tormented by Hobbs Pritchard is The Connors, and although Nellie at first tries to reconcile with the family, they end up warning her about Hobbs’ sadistic ways instead. Nellie, still foolish and eager to believe in her husband’s kindness, with the stubbornness of youth still following her around, ignores their pleas. But even she must one day realize who Hobbs truly is.

Nellie is by far the strongest voice that appears in the entire book. Although often scorned by Hobbs as being ‘stupid, ignorant and incapable of even cooking a decent meal’, the reader soon realizes that Nellie is neither of those things. She is headstrong and intelligent, her only flaw in the matter being her naivety when it comes to men, marriage and love. When Nellie feels herself falling for Jack, Hobbs’ half-brother instead, while Hobbs is on another unexpected, long business trip, she sees him as her possible rescuer from the terrible hold Hobbs has over her, threatening even her mother if she does not do his every bid. However, when the time is neigh and Jack fails to come to her rescue, Nellie, now reduced to an empty shell of her former self, must take matters in her own hands.

What follows is both eerie and gruesome, but haunting and compelling all the same. Aided by the ghosts of Black Mountain themselves, Nellie might just escape Hobbs’ deadly clutches. But secret sins are a hard burden to bear….

The next part of the story, is significantly less powerful than Nellie’s haunting tale. Whereas the ghosts, who we first encountered when Nellie told her story, do make some reappearance in the rest of the novel, their presence is much less threatening than they appeared at first.

We learn about Nellie’s childhood through the eyes of her mother, Josie Clay, who herself saw a ghost or two as well. Although this casts a light on why Nellie too is capable of seeing ghosts, this dropped the pace of the narrative significantly and I could have done well without. Later on, we also read the story from Shelly Parker, local pshycic and perhaps Nellie’s only true friend on those lonely mountains. Although this served as some sort of inbetween-story to glue Nellie’s and Rose’s story together, I did find it intriguing, but not necessarily to keep the story going.

Rose Gardner’s story on the other hand, is a lot more intriguing and interesting than the two previously mentioned. Rose was the other woman in Hobbs Pritchard’s life. Although she herself proclaims not to be as beautiful as Nellie nor as intelligent, she strikes the reader as being the opposite, at least at first glance. Rose is the woman Hobbs supposedly truly loved, or as truly as a man like Hobbs can love anyone. Although their relationship is mostly based upon the physical attraction between them, Rose is the only woman Hobbs ever said “I like you” to, which is as close to professing his love as he could get. Strangely, we don’t hear or know about Rose until at the very end of Nellie’s tale, but her presence in Hobbs’ life is just as notable. Rose occasionally wonders to herself is she really did love Hobbs throughout their love affair, a question she has a hard time answering.

As most murderers and mad men, Hobbs has two sides about him, which make him all the more interesting and multi-faceted. However, the question that rises is if these two parts of him are really too far apart. Did he really love Rose, as one might think when you imagine them spending days in bed or talking for hours, whereas it’s clear he would prefer it if Nellie kept her mouth shut all the time? Or is his love for Rose based solely on her hoodoo spell? I personally had trouble accepting the latter, not because I don’t believe in hoodoo – don’t know enough about the matter to form my opinion about it – but mostly because I didn’t want to. Part of me felt that this book would have been richer, more compelling, if Hobbs was capable of loving – or seemingly loving – another living being, instead of having that part of him based on some spell. I wish the author had left that out alltogether, and that Hobbs’ love for Rose could have been at least partly genuine. Instead, the author left the reader with an option, and since I chose to believe that he did care for Rose in his own, twisted way, that made me view Hobbs as more than a deranged, aggressive and violent man. Instead, I saw him as a troubled individual, with a lot of issues that made him into the monster most people believed he was.

As I already mentioned, I would have been content with the story only being told from Nellie’s and Rose’s point of view. I did not see the need for Shelly’s version of the events, or Josie Clay’s memoir, which totally messed up the chronological order as well. Nellie saw the good side of Hobbs, fell in love with him, and then met his bad side along the way. He threated her like a porcelain doll: he places her in a house, he lived with her, but he didn’t really talk to her or communicated in any other way. On his worst days, he threated her like garbage, or worse. With Rose on the other hand, we meet a rather passionate Hobbs Pritchard, a man struggling with his own feeilngs, who will never get beyond saying “I like you” no matter how hard he tries. In Rose Gardner he meets the woman he’s actually looking for, a woman more his equal, a person he can talk to. She knows he’s a bad man, and accepts it, mostly because she doesn’t know – nor wants to know – the full extent of his crimes. But he can be nice to her, and in fact, he is most of the time. He makes love to her, while he usually just has sex with Nellie (up till the point that I would call it rape). It’s another side of this multi-faced person, a side that makes him all the more intriguing. As is mentioned throughout the novel, not a lot of women can change a man’s ways, but Rose might just be the person to do that with Hobbs Pritchard.

However, what I found most notable is the way I as a reader changed my views of both Rose and Nellie as their story progressed. I first met Nellie when she was a rather shy, young and naïve child, with an innocent look upon marriage and the world in its whole. Protected from the bad stuff in life by her mother, Nellie is definately not ready for what it means to be married with a man like Hobbs Pritchard, however, blinded by love and the foolishness of youth, she decides to marry him anyway. But – and this is what I think Hobbs least expected – life on Black Mountain hardens Nellie. Seeing as both ghosts and living people warn her about her husband, faced with his erratic and compulsive behavior herself, she builds an almost impenetrable wall around her. She grows stronger, not only by chopping wood at the back of her house, but in her heart as well. Her heart turns black, as she herself indicates. Hobbs, by violating and malthreating her, is turning her into his worst possible enemy. And the thing is, he doesn’t even notice. He fails to see that the naïve, innocent young girl he took with him to Black Mountain, has become a little too much like him.

When we meet Rose, on the other hand, she is nor innocent nor naïve. With a mother who’s basically a prostitute, Rose knows a thing or two about life. Yet she too is foolish enough to fall for Hobbs Pritchard and even believing that he could care for, or love her like a proper man should. At first, she was obviously a lot stronger than Nellie, but whereas Nellie grows stronger throughout the novel, we see Rose growing weaker and more humble, until the point that she even admits that Nellie was stronger and more intelligent than she was all along. This shows a remarkable skill for characterization on Ann Hite’s behalf: turning the roles around, making us see the different kinds of strength and intelligence people can have, and making it all the more obvious how a person can change when they have no other options left or no one else to turn to.

I have to admit that, although I found the parts about Nellie Pritchard and Rosie Gardner to be superb, in both writing style, authentic narrator’s voice and fast-paced suspense, the spin-off story about Iona Harbor was something better left out, in my opinion. It just dragged the story on, taking a masterpiece and expanding it for another good fifty-pages until its status changed from “it’s a good book, but stop dragging it out”. Beware though; here are some spoilers. Iona Harbor is Annie Harbor’s daughter, and Annie is no one else but Nellie, who changed her name to escape her past. She goes through some troubles as well – I’m not going to say what, because that might spoil things for you – which, as can be expected, bring her and Annie back to Black Mountain. Cliché, much? In any case, I totally saw this coming, and I didn’t even want to wait to see how things played out. As I said, instead of dragging this book out, Ann Hite could have called it quits a hundred or so pages earlier and she would have written what I would consider a masterpiece in gothic horror and Southern literature. Now, not so much. That’s not to say that I’m not mighty impressed – I am – but still, I feel a tad bit dissapointed with the ending. Not all loose ends have to be tied up.

The ghosts were a nice addition and they added to the haunting and eerie atmosphere of Black Mountain. Although not particularly scary when read in daylight, I can imagine that this novel might be terrifying when read at night. Ann Hite has a wonderful writing style, with a lot of authenticity in her character’s voices. It’s obvious that a lot of care and thought went into creating this novel, its backstory and its characters. Whereas I would have preferred to learn more about Hobbs’ history and what caused him to become such a cruel and mean man, and I wasn’t that interested in the story of Iona Harbor, I did thoroughly enjoy reading this book. In fact, I read it in one reading session, and I didn’t even want to pause to grab myself a new cup of milk, so that’s saying something.

Dramatic, eerie and supsenseful at its best, Ghost on Black Mountain is a gripping debut novel that will make fans of Faulkner and Poe squeal from delight. With strong and authentic main characters, a multi-faceted bad guy and a haunting backstory, this book will appeal to everyone who enjoys a decent thriller or gothic horror story. Definately recommended, but beware: Once a person leaves Black Mountain, they never come back, not really. They’re lost forever.

[Mayda · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don’t have to believe in ghosts to thoroughly enjoy this southern ghost story, but you might want to turn up the lights to rid the room of shadows before you start reading. And once you start reading, you won’t want to quit. Hobbs Pritchard was a mean and self-serving man, and cared not a whit about others. Still, he managed to make more than one girl think she was in love with him. But relationships with him were cursed, and also cursed was the next generation. This story is excellently told through the different voices of five strong women. All their narratives weave together seamlessly to make a solid form, the core of which is Hobbs Pritchard. Well written with descriptive language, in a wondrous setting, and with unforgettable characters, this story will leave you wanting more.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful blend of Gothic and ghost, set on Black Mountain just outside Asheville-- a place I've loved to go. (A friend used to have a great restaurant up on Black Mountain.) Told from the point of view of five women, it's the story of a good woman loving a bad man, with ghosts thrown in. I liked the varied perspectives and how they moved the story along.

[Teenie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so glad I finally got around to reading this fascinating book! I loved hearing the story from several different women. Each character’s story was exceptionally captivating. The characters were well written and I was engaged in everyone of them. I thoroughly enjoyed finding out how the characters storylines were intertwined in each other. The twist at the end of the book was unexpected and surprising. This was a perfect read for fall!

[Jessica Rowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put this book down! I love a good ol’ Southern tale! It really makes you think about what all you would do to protect the ones you love. And it got me wondering if I believe in “haints.”

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

The summary on the back of this book doesn't do the story justice at all! This was an amazing book with terrific characters, plot lines, and writing. There is no simple summary for this book, which is why the back of the book summary is probably so vague. In a nutshell, Nellie is a young and foolish girl who thinks she knows better than her Mama and her Mama's tea leaves that predict darkness and bad things. Nellie is head over heals in love with Hobbs Pritchard and will do anything to be with him forever. He is sweet and dotes on her and makes her feel loved and extremely special like no one else ever has. This is why Nellie marries Hobbs, against her Mama's wishes, and moves with him up to Black Mountain where he lives with what little family he has left. Nellie soon finds out that the Hobbs that was showing himself to her in her hometown and the Hobbs that is true when up in Black Mountain are two very different men. She soon learns why her Mama and her tea leaves predicted trouble and darkness. Nellie finds kindness only in Jack, Hobbs's step brother, but even Jack can't help her when it comes to Hobbs's dark side and abuse both physically and verbally. Nellie soon finds that she looks forward to when Hobbs is gone "on business" down the mountain, but she has no friends and is lonely. She tries to make friends, but because of who her husband is, people steer clear of her, afraid of what Hobbs will say or do if they try to be friendly to Nellie. Hobbs controls Black Mountain by striking fear into those that live there. Soon Nellie takes drastic actions to rid herself of Hobbs and his controlling and abusive behavior. This leads to a tangled web of lies, mystery, deception, and whole new starts. Can Nellie really run from her life on Black Mountain? Who are the ghosts she continues to see that seem to be warning her about something? What could they be warning her about? Just how bad of a situation has Nellie gotten herself into by marrying Hobbs?

In my opinion what could make a better book than mystery, hoodoo, ghosts, and murder?! I found myself so enthralled into this book I was up until all hours of the morning reading it to get to the end of the mystery. This book has so many twists and turns it makes you wonder where the truth really does twist in. I had moments of "aaahhhh" in this book where everything just seemed to slide together. I loved this book. I also must admit to having to turn on more than just my reading light when I read it at night. The ghosts and mystery of it all was so creepy at times I thought I heard things in my own room! It was amazing! The story moved along over many years, but not once did I feel it moved too fast or too slow, nor did it ever confuse me. It was an all around great story and very well thought out and written. I think a follow up book or two could very easily be a thought for this author. Not because there were loose ends, but because there were so many great characters that could be worthy of their own, more detailed story. Like Shelly or Iona as they grow up. This is a great mystery, southern fiction, and ghost story all mixed into one. I can't give this book enough praise without giving away too much of the plot or piece of the plot. This is a must read book!

5/5 Stars!!

[Kari Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nellie meets the man of her dreams in Hobbs Pritchard. Her mama wants her to take it slow, but Nellie is afraid that if she doesn’t marry Hobbs when he asks, no one else will want her. But when she gets to Hobbs’ home on Black Mountain, everything changes. The stories about Hobbs are too unbelievable to be true, even though she sees the ghosts of Hobbs’ past. And soon, Nellie knows if she doesn’t take her life in her own hands, she’ll be a ghost of Black Mountain as well. What she doesn’t know is that by keeping her decision a secret, she’ll transform the lives of many and those ghosts may never let her be peaceful.

Ghost on Black Mountain is told through the lives of five women. I normally love when books do this because I really appreciate an author that can write in so many different voices and weave their stories together. During this book, I didn’t feel this way. I loved Nellie’s story from the beginning and didn’t want to hear from anyone else. But I passed judgement too soon. By the time I got done with the book, I understood why the different voices were needed and it worked beautifully.

Sometimes when you go to choose a book, you don’t know what it is, but something draws you to a book and you just have to read it. That’s how this book was with me. When I started looking up titles from the August Simon & Schuster Galley Grab letter. I am a fan of ghost stories and when I saw this cover and read the summary, I had to read it. And boy am I glad that I did.

In no way, shape, or form is that a romantic love story beneath the ghostly exterior. It is everything of a tragic, terrifying story of the ghosts that haunt your past and how your decisions can make a ghost of yourself. But this story, in all of it’s tragedy is beautiful and one I want to read over and over again.

There’s a lot of books that when you finish them, you have to sit and think, “What is the big picture?”. With this one, I knew before the book was even through and it’s one that I’ll keep with me, with this book in the back of my mind. There are some decisions in your life that you will have to make. They won’t necessarily be the most legal in Nellie’s case or most moral, for that matter, but they’re the ones you have to make to survive. But after you make those decisions, they stay with you. In Nellie’s case, for decades, she kept those decisions with her. They were her ghosts. And they came back to haunt her because the people that should have known about her ghosts were kept in the dark. There are some stories that may hurt to tell, but they’re ones you have to let people in on. If someone loves you, they will accept you, no matter your story.

I give Ghost on Black Mountain 5 bookmarks. And as always when I read a book I love, I look for more books by the author that I may also love. When I started searching for more Ann Hite books, I hit gold. There is a PDF file of stories from Black Mountain online. I started reading them, in the middle of writing this review, and got so sidetracked I forgot I was writing. Woops. I can’t wait to learn more about Black Mountain so I am cutting this review short

[Brittany Rehage · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time. It's the kind of book that makes you stay up until 2am reading it because you just have to know what happens on the next page. There wasn't a place where I could stop reading and not think about it.

The web that surrounds Hobbs Pritchard draws you in slowly and before you know it, he's managed to ensnare you, just like he does his ladies in the book. The different perspectives each woman gives of the same man shows just how complicated a person can be. There isn't one true Hobbs, in my opinion. Each woman sees a different version of him, and they're all right and wrong at the same time. As much as I disliked him as a person, his character is one of the best I've read.

As for each of the women, my heart went out to each and every one. They all had secrets that eventually came back to bite them, some worse than others. It didn't matter what the reasoning was behind keeping the secrets, be it good or bad, the secrets ate at each woman and her life.

Something else I found wonderful was how strong the females are in this book. They might make bad choices, but who doesn't in life? However, these women overcome these weaknesses and stand up for themselves, taking charge of their situation and doing what they need to do to make their lives better. I know I say it a lot, but I love real characters, and these women fit the bill. They found strength in their weaknesses, and transformed from characters in a book to real people in my mind.

This was not the simple read I thought it was going to be. It deals with the dark side of human nature, how keeping secrets can destroy good things and many women's issues. This was a fantastic novel and Hite's next book cannot be released soon enough.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off this book is in 6 parts all a different POV but the first and last part and not in chronological order. It didn't work very well and made the story being told very choppy. Also each part gives you some back story on the POV life and not all of it is relevant to the whole over all story arch the author was trying to write. Plus they have actions that connect to other parts but are left uncompleted once the POV changes so we are left with vital parts of the story missing. The writing is almost over simplistic even if it does capture how people spoke in those days. There also wasn't a whole lot of detail. I found myself wondering what the characters looked like besides their hair color. The ghost is actually many ghosts and we never really get anything resolved about them. There are a lot of lose ends that never get tied up. Last I understand that this is a time period piece and age gaps are common between couples but almost every man in this book was a pedophile or border line pedophile. Oh and all the characters in the later parts of the books wink at each other all the time when something of interest or meaningful or sly or funny has happened. No one in reality does this so why are all of these characters doing it all the time and so suddenly out of the blue? It breaks with how they have been written and portrayed for most of their appearances in the book that suddenly close to the end they have to say something or do something and then wink.