Gilray's Ghost

by John Gordon

First printing.

Paperback

First published September 4, 1995

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

John Gordon was an English writer of adolescent supernatural fiction. He was the author of fifteen fantasy novels (including The Giant Under The Snow), four short story collections, over fifty short stories, and a teenage memoir. For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gor...

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honest reaction to Gilray's Ghost: it's a book that thinks it's much more clever than it is, and I still kind of enjoyed it. Gordon, John loads the story with winking references and twisty structure, and the scene where the main character literally argues with the narrator is clever for about five pages. Then it starts to feel like a magic trick that keeps explaining itself. For readers who like playful, meta stuff. Skip it if you prefer your stories played straight.

[Bill Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a few of John Gordon's other books and they are excellent; this one, however, has left a sour taste. Gordon usually writes with sensitivity about young people, their feelings, and emotional growing pains, but the cattiness and horniness of the teenagers in this novel are a departure. Factor in two teenage girls romantically involved with adult men (one of them the girl's teacher) and it becomes rather gross. The plotting is decent, there is a nicely-imagined future version of England, the quirky Gilray is a charming character, and the time-travel mechanics are novel, so it's not all bad. I do wonder if the inappropriate romance angle was forced on him by the publisher or if it was just a cynical ploy on the author's part to titillate a YA audience.