Mortal Ghost

by L. Lee Lowe

It's a fiery hot summer, and sixteen-year-old Jesse Wright is on the run. An oddly gifted boy, he arrives in a new city where the direction of his life is about to change. He's hungry and lonely and desperate - and beset by visions of a stranger who is being brutally tortured. And then there are Jesse's own memories of a fire ...

Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy, Young Adult, Ebooks, Fiction, Romance, Mystery

379 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2008

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. The author had me thoroughly confused as to what was happening. I was faced with two options, either I could keep reading on and hope that it would come together and make sense in the end, or just give it up. After 200 pages, I really wanted to give it up. At times I thought to myself, maybe it is just me. Am I this thick, naive, or uneducated that I can’t grasp what a simple story this is? But I don’t believe so.
The story seems to me to change from chapter to chapter. It’s as if even the author doesn’t really know the direction it’s going either, which in some instances can be a good thing, but not this time. At the beginning it’s about Jesse and his mysterious past, at another time it’s about Sarah’s weird parents Meg and Finn, and at other times it’s about Sarah’s horrific and detailed experience with Mick and Gavin. It simply doesn’t flow, and isn’t cohesive.
However, I did like the character development. Finn, Meg, Jesse, and Sarah were all great characters, and prove to be the best part of the entire book. I have a few more stories by the same author, (Corvus, Noise, and Snowstor’), but I believe I will wait a while before getting to them. I’m willing to give the author another chance, but I’m not as optimistic as I was at the beginning of reading Mortal Ghost. I’m desperately hopeful that I’ll not go through the same ordeal again.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished this book because I was convinced that with tops appearing out of nowhere, teens with memories but no history on paper, mystical healing and fire-starting abilities, a woman with the ability to sense emotions/thoughts(?) and organic computers that can take over someone's body that somewhere in the end the author would give the reader an explanation of it all. Unfortunately, this never happened.

There are interesting elements to this book. The problem is that there are so many of them, I was never sure what was going on. This book has elements of contemporary, hard science fiction, paranormal and fantasy. In the end, it was just too much.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

6% and I give up. Did this book even have an editor? Random jumps between perspective. Switching between past and present tense? I got the feeling the present was a dream or something but there was no way to mark it, no extra space between paragraphs or italics or anything. And the characters! First. Jesse. Your homeless yet you spend a lot of the money you do have on books? Sarah. You meet a homeless guy on the street and the first thing you do is invite him home. Sarah's mom. No reaction to this random guy suddenly in your house? It makes no sense! These characters have no brain.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was free to download on my nook. I honestly got tired of looking at the cover and decided to read it. This was a huge mistake. The writing was half-hazardly strung together. Not only was I uninterested with the characters, I still don't understand the plot ( if there was one, and I am betting not). A total waste of time.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really held my interest and kept me guessing. I can't say that all of the mysteries in my head were solved but it was greatly suspenseful and I would love to read more...

[LK Griffie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let’s go back in time to the hey-day of radio when stories were read on a weekly basis and the family gathered around the radio to wait for the next installment. Or when newspapers or magazines published novels a chapter at a time. The speculation of what would happen next would be discussed with the anticipation mounting as you waited for the story to continue. Author L. Lee Lowe has brought this concept back with her young adult fantasy novel, Mortal Ghost, by publishing it one chapter at a time via blog. She then published the book in installments via podcast and as an e-book, and then finally as a POD with Lulu.

L. Lee Lowe believes that work should be made accessible to all, and therefore, there is no charge for the e-Book downloads, or reading from the blog, and the book published is priced at cost of printing. Mortal Ghost is one that would not have been broadcast during family hour due to subject matter, and on the blog site Lowe advises it is not recommended for readers under 16, but is an excellent story for the intended readership.

I love the concept of the serialized novel. The thought of being able to publish one chapter and have the opportunity of instantaneous feedback from your target readers is very attractive. The only problem with that concept is that I tend to write - rewrite - rewrite - rewrite and have to force myself to stop and call it finished. If I had feedback from all quarters saying what they liked, didn’t like, I would continue the tweaking process and never finish the book. And let’s face it, not everyone is always going to agree, so there would always be a comment indicating something that might need to be tweaked.

I was also relieved to learn that Lowe had completed the book before starting to publish it online. Think of the pressure if you didn’t have a completed novel to start with? Would the next chapter be done in time to publish on the designated date? Would your characters behave nicely and let you in on the secret of what happens next or turn ugly and refuse to speak to you until the deadline passed? Would your readers get fed up with your incalculable schedule and never return to finish the book? Speaking for myself, I find that I am unable to write under that kind of pressure.

The cover of Mortal Ghost is extremely eye-catching and provides a hint of what is to come inside. The dramatic cover art is the work of Australian artist L.M. Noonan. It is definitely better viewed in large size so that you get the full effect of the details which are on the torso behind the reflected light of the fire. This cover is the essence of the book, distilled into an image, beautifully done.

Where is the line between imagination and reality? Can you be swallowed by a memory? Are the memories that you hold, yours or do they belong to someone else? Is it possible for a healer to kill?

Mortal Ghost is a magnificently descriptive novel which poses all of the above questions and more. At the heart of the novel is a modern day teen-age love story, full of hesitancy, misunderstandings, and tenderness. One might call it typical, except the love story is only one layer of a many-layered book. Meet Jesse. A sixteen year old runaway, who is living on the street and earns money doing odd jobs, like washing windows or mowing lawns, in order to buy food. Jesse is far from your typical teen-ager. In addition to being extremely well read, especially since he has been in and out of foster care from the age of 9 and on the street otherwise, Jesse has the power to heal wounded animals and is a fire-starter. Jesse lost his entire family in a fire at the age of 9 and carries around the guilt of not being able to save his mother and younger sister from the fire.

Meet Sarah. A self-assured, independent, ballet dancer, with a fiery temper who brings Jesse home to meet her family. Her mother, Meg, a psychiatrist who works with troubled teens and “sees” things that haven’t happened yet or she hasn’t been told. And her father, Finn, an international photographer, who uses that as a cover for another profession which his family knows nothing about. Against Jesse’s inclinations, he ends up staying with the Andersen family and is learning to trust someone other than himself. The Andersen’s see Jesse as the opportunity to redeem themselves for where they failed their own son, Peter, who left home and was not heard from until he died in suspicious circumstances.

The very core of the story revolves around Jesse - who is he and how did he come to have these powers? No one seems to know, least of all Jesse himself. He is shaken to his foundation by a discovery that Finn has made and reveals to him after taking him to a secret laboratory so that Jesse’s powers can be studied.

‘Tell him,’ Ayen said.
‘Tell me what?’ Jesse asked.
Finn looked at him for a long while before answering. Finally he sighed. ‘You’ve told me about the fire that killed your family.’
‘And?’ Jesse’s voice was loud and angry.
‘And that no one survived the fire.’
‘How can you possibly think I need reminding? Get to the point.’
‘Jesse, no one survived the fire. We’ve checked the records. Not a single member of the household. Not even the boy.’
Jesse stared at Finn, the colour draining from his face as he took in the import of Finn’s words.
‘That’s impossible. There must be some mistake,’ Jesse said.
‘Not unless you gave us false information.’
‘I’m no liar!’
Ayen interposed in a tranquil tone. ‘There’s no error. We’ve seen copies of the coroner’s report, the police records, the death certificates. All records of Jesse Wright end with the fire-school, health, even church. Nor has social services ever heard of you.’

Now Jesse is struggling with the question of who he is and how he has memories of everything that has happened in addition to the other strange occurrences that continue to plague him. While at the laboratory, he spends some time with something that is known as the prototype, a computer which has baffled the scientists working with it by creating things on its own. The connection with the prototype haunts Jesse as it invades his thoughts, taunts him and tries to manipulate his actions.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mortal Ghost and L. Lee Lowe’s love of words and the craft of writing comes shining through the descriptions that are beautiful to the point of poetic. Her use of symbolism seeks to underscore the underlying theme of life and death. My only criticism of the work is that with the continual shifts of point of view and changing between present and past tense, there are some transitions which are a little awkward, and caused me to have to reread in order to ensure that I understood what was happening. Mortal Ghost has more twists and turns than an old-fashioned mountain road. This book contains a love story, enemies, rape, dysfunctional families, glances at the drug culture, as well as paranormal abilities and a computer trying to gain control. If you are someone who likes all of the questions answered and all of the story lines tied up in a nice bow by the end of the book, then Mortal Ghost is not for you.

However, if you are willing to open your mind to the possibilities where the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred, where a boy exists, but has died, where objects appear and disappear, and where at the end you have more questions than answers, then Mortal Ghost is well worth reading. I look forward to L. Lee Lowe’s next novel, which is currently in progress, for the pure joy of the language as well as where the wings of fantasy will take the storyline.

Preview Mortal Ghost.

Originially reviewed for the LL Book Review

[Jessie Rosser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it for the most part, but it was confusing. I wish the supercomputer thing wasn't in the book at all; I just don't understand what the point of it was. I think they should have indicated when the scene changes; there were moments when I had to re-trace because I realized they were in a completely different conversation than before. I think the author could have ended it better. The ending had great potential, but it ended too soon, it seems. I like the Ariel part, it explains the "small figure" swimming around him during one otherwordly experience Jesse had, when he though of Ariel, the mythical creature, when he saw it. I just think the author ended it too soon, I expected the kestrel that flew away from him after he burst into flames to be his spirit or something of the sort, but Lowe just left the book with a never-to-be-satisfied cliffhanger. I did cry during the last chapter, and that always indicates that it's a good book, and I did enjoy reading it most of the time. I get the feeling that this is one of those books that if you re-read it, you will discover something new each time you read it.

Also, for any other readers of this book, help me understand some of this if you can. I don't understand what happened with Daisy(I know he killed her, but I don't understand why), and the part when he left the house to go for a walk in the middle of the night(Nubi transforms into Anubis and Jesse kills the man hanging in the tree). And, if you understand the logic behind having the entire supercomputer parts in the book, let me know, but after reading a few other reviews no one seems to understand that part...

[Amanda D'Aniello · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book. I had to read it a few times, before I absorbed everything. It is really rich in detail and suspense. I don't really Like suspense, but Lowe wove this story so well that it added to the genius of the story. It had the perfect mix of romance, and suspense and paranormal/physicic-ness that it created a perfect story. A must read for young adults.

P.s It IS a british book, so some of the phrases are hard to understand for American readers, but it is not so often as to disrupt the story line.

[Kathy Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I downloaded this ebook when it was offered for free and only read it recently. What a wonderful surprise! I’m not usually a fan of fantasy and science fiction but I loved this book. From the first page to the last, Mortal Ghost is elegantly written and beautifully paced. Although it’s possibly aimed at young adults, older people will still enjoy it and identify with its themes. Lowe has created interesting and multi-dimensional characters and an intriguing theme. I can’t wait to read more by this author. Thoroughly recommended.

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting and different and sometimes even weird. There are several choppy bits where the transitions from one scene to the next just jump - no smooth transition from one place to another, no break in the way the page is set up - just one paragraph there might be the boy & girl in the park and the next paragraph the boy is waking from a night's sleep (just an example). A sad and possibly a bit melancholy story right up to the ending but I don't regret reading it.

[elissa]

After a very brutal scene, I had to set this aside for awhile. I'll pick it back up again soon.

Even though it's been almost 2 years since I started this, I read a little of it recently and it all came back very clearly. Will get back to it again soon!

Have not been able to get back to it, so putting on my "gave up" shelf for now.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thus far this book is sort of a mess. The general plot is good but the editing, or rather the lack thereof, gives me a headache. There is a lot of jumping around, a lack of paragraph breaks and more than a few spelling errors. It's not a bad story, it's just bad editing, as though this were a first draft and no one ever felt the need to check it over and make corrections.

[Kendra Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book had promise but I also think that the author tried to put two different books into one story. I didn't much care for the part with the supercomputer and I feel like the story would have been more solid without it. There was already so much going on that it felt like a distraction.

[Genevieve · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is SO confusing. There are often no breaks between topics and so things jump around so you don't know where you are in the story. The story also makes little sense. I gave up 2/3rds of the way through when I realized I didn't know where the sphinx (sphinx?!) came from. That said, I did find the main characters compelling, which is the only reason I stuck with it for so long.

[C.C. Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was good. I didn't have trouble with spelling or grammar. I think it was more of a language barrier. The author just talks differently than I do. The story itself was great. Maybe a little weird at times but still very good. It's definitely not a light read and deals with some tough issues. I would only recommend it to mature young adult readers.

[Jessy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the craziness of this book and all the different story lines going on but I feel like it could have cleared a few more things up just a little bit. And there were quite a lot of spelling errors in this book...on the nook. Not sure if that's any different from the actual book. But just saying.

[Stephani · Rating 2 out of 5]

No offense. I got completely lost at least a dozen times. No idea what was going on most of the time. Not the greatest writing shown in this book. I tried for two weeks to read this and I can read a book a day if I put my mind to it. Way too confusing and Im saddened to say I could NOT finish it... So another bad review...so sorry.

[Cheri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird. Confusing. Tons of profanity. Virtually no story line here. Just a screwed up teen doing screwed up teen stuff and the end was bizzare! Finished and my first thought was what the heck did I just read!? I don't even pretend to know what happened here. That and the sex was totally unecessary. . . . . .really just not the best book.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a change from what I'm used to reading. The main character Jesse is very smart so there where parts of the book that were hard to read but I liked the challenge. It wasn't a feel good book, so that was also different. I liked the book, it really makes you think.

[hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange story about a boy that has very special abilities. It 's not really a happy end and not a bad end as well.

[Carlos Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, fast, enticing. I enjoyed this story, although I had to check on things from time to time thanks to the cultural divide. But all in all I enjoyed the story and would recommend it.

[S. Spelbring · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this ebook. Some reviewers on Smashwords didn't like it because they couldn't find a plot, or didn't resonate with the characters. As one of the secondary characters was named Sarah, I didn't have a problem resonating with that character.

However, there isn't a plot with this story, not really. It's one of those novels that just follows along with the lives of the characters until a certain event occurs. It's a bit like a Danielle Steel novel, you move and grow with the characters until a certain point.

For that reason and because this ebook had a supernatural/paranormal twist to it, I did like this ebook.

[Emmie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential, but somewhere along the line the author lost me. The premise was fascinating and drew me to reading the book. Maybe there was too many factors that the author tried to incorporate and thus got lost with the plot.

But it was a sad book, one of those that when you finish you feel despondent.

I think the author has wonderful ideas, maybe with a good editor to give direction the next book will not make the reader feel lost and confused

[Rune · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty graphic sexually and violently, would not recommend for those under 17 years of age. Very disturbing.

[Erth · Rating 3 out of 5]

now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.

The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.

i would highly recommend this author and this book.

[Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay book, I enjoyed reading it from beginning to end. The author had an interesting premise and a way of describing characters that you would like to meet in real life. There were several drawbacks to the novel which I think took away from my really enjoying this book.

As stated several times before by other reviewers the narrative was confusing at times. Sometimes you felt like whole chunks of dialogue or pages were missing. This is especially disconcerting while reading this book in a electronic format. Did I get a bad copy? There were times where I would flip forwards and backwards thinking maybe I had skipped a page somewhere.

Also transitioning from chapter to chapter even within chapters was rough at times. Characters would be in the middle of a dialogue or action and then they would be doing or saying something totally different.

The other drawback to this story was the symbolic and expressive language the author used. Neither the protagonist no characters offered any insight of what was going on. There was very little self awareness in the storyline.

As an example Here is an excerpt:

"As Jesse swung round to listen, the blow caught across the back of his head. The world tilted and went black."

Next chapter no mention of what happened. What hits him no explanations given. What follows next is a jumbled mess of symbology and cryptic phrasing. He talks to a sphinx see someone tied to a tree.
And the chapter ends. There are many instances where ideas are brought up and then dropped.

This story could have used better editing and more fleshing out, but for what it was I enjoyed it. I would not mind reading other books by this author I do see a lot of promise.

[moxieBK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very much a literary book. I have attempted to read it several times over the course of when I first downloaded it until now. (Oct. 2011-Dec. 2015.) I'll admit, for me, it was a tough sled to start and focus on reading it, but I finally decided to clean out my very old "To-Read" books and this one kept hanging around.

I'm glad I didn't get too discouraged from bad reviews. There is a wonderful story in here, if one is patient enough to let the story unfold. I can't say it's for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it very much. The ending knocked off one star--even if I knew it was plodding along to that point, and it truly was worth it in the end--but it's still a very strong story. Probably definitely worth five stars, and I might change my rating as I meditate on it further, but in some ways I wish the ending would have come before then. However, at the very end: a very good, classical ending.

It's not often that I have the opportunity, no scratch that--the desire to read honest to good literary books, but this was one that I'm glad I made an exception to. (I suppose it helped that I didn't know how literary this book would end up being.) The characters are real and intense in a down to earth sort of way. Granted, everything changes about 51% of the way in, when the "literary" part gets turn on it's ear and the paranormal part leaks out...but even then the characters are real; the writing absolutely gorgeous. This author really knows how to write scenes. And even if the story ended the way it did, and I don't download long books like this anymore, I'm glad I spent all day reading it on my holiday break.

Four stars.

[Nicole Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goddess! This is something else. This author must have smoked something I never tried ;). I never read something so intense, so powerful. I am a French speaking person and I was more into the dictionary than the book itself. But I loved it, it expend my vocabulary to the max. Naturally, as a French speaking person, I sometime found it confusing; was it the language barrier or was it really difficult to follow. So, I was glad when I read some reviewers saying it was confusing and all over the place for them too. But I still appreciate this book tremendously.
The book cover is very representative to the storyline. This story has strong characters who bring interesting plots to the storylines with issues such as homelessness, sexual abuse, rape, torture, special abilities and paranormal; a story that is so unpredictable.
This is a book/storyline where you need and open mind, this is not an easy read. You need to go back few pages in order to catch the idea, the meaning of what you just read. Even if the storyline is about Jesse and Sarah who are about 17 years old, this is adult material. Is this reality or hallucination? Is this reality or parallel planes? I really enjoyed this book and I would tremendously enjoy a sequel.
I just downloaded “Corvus” of the same author. I hope it will bring me as much pleasure as Mortal Ghost did.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am conflicted about this book. It was an interesting idea, but it wasn't always well written. It did not have any natural means of transition, no pages breaks or anything that would indicated a scene change. I liked Jesse and Sarah a lot, as well as Finn. I never did understand what was going on with the government study and that part of the story did not make sense; it seemed like a filler to meet a word requirement. It didn't really add to the story, just confused it. I was glad that Jesse was able to get back at Mick and Gavin, even if the first attempt didn't take and the second cost so many lives, the third was wonderfully poetic, especially Gavin's punishment. However, I thought the ending was cheap and well, to be blunt not very fair to the readers. Jesse "dies" in a bridge fire or did he turn in to the bird? Sarah has his baby and misses him terribly, still dreams about him, and thinks she sees him but can't be sure and it ends with Ariel, their daughter, having the top and wet hair. So is he really dead? It doesn't seem like it, but then why is he avoiding her? Like I said, interesting idea but not very well put together and not very well finished either. This was a free ebook for my Nook.

[Denise]

I started reading Mortal Ghost and just love it when a book grabs me at the beginning and I don't want my break to end so I can go on reading. What a delightfully unusual book. As I understand it this book was originally written as a serial and published one chapter at a time in various venues. When the story reached the end it was then published in book form offered on kindle for free. What a treat it is to get something so worth reading as a gift from the author. The book is quite long, but i found I could not stop reading it and just had to find out what was going to happen next. There are questions of the supernatural surrounding a homeless boy named Jesse who seems to have "powers" and is able to travel in different "dimensions" or the "unknown." He is taken in by a family who has suffered great losses, as he has, and they come to love each other. There is also a taste of romance, deep lasting love, healing, violence, and rage against those who would would hurt others; not to mention a renewing of strength by eating chocolate. This was such an unusual story that frankly I find it hard to condense into just a few words what it is really about and I can only say it is a fantastic read and a true gift from the author - pick it up!