What do you think?
Rate this book
All the Other Ghosts #1
All the Other Ghosts
It's a big city for one more lost soul in a mask.
- GenresFan Fiction
565 pages, Paperback
2 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 28, 2021
It’s been 6 years since I’ve first year this and constantly go back to it.
Interweaves action, love, social issues and a whole load of internet meta in the most perfect mind blowing way. Wholeheartedly one of my favourite books.
Interweaves action, love, social issues and a whole load of internet meta in the most perfect mind blowing way. Wholeheartedly one of my favourite books.
Read
January 21, 2022We don’t have to talk about this <3
April 13, 2020
Exceptional read, even for those outside of the fandom. It's a superb look into the modern idea of a superhero, and draws from social issues of homosexuality, feminism, women's rights, and one lost soul in a mask trying to make peace with a society that grows increasingly horrible.
February 11, 2017
One of the best fics ever.
December 29, 2018
So this isn’t the first time I’ve read All the Other Ghosts, because I read it as it was updating in...2012? 2013? I was hardcore into the Glee fandom at that point, which feels like it should be embarrassing but actually isn’t. I enjoyed the fandom, certainly more than I enjoyed the show. It was a community filled with incredible writers, whose talent more than measures up to many of the books I read today. (Rainjoy is certainly one of them). And the fandom had problems, yes—problems upon problems—but there was an excitement and a feeling of community there.
This brings me back to that era, in my own reminiscences and in what I think may be the most ingenious part of AtOG: the fandom. The Ghost and Phalanx (and oh, we'll get to them) have their own fandom, and it's through there that you get outside perspective, and it allows the reader to intimately connect with what is going on. I'm sure there were sentences in those sections that were stolen verbatim from Glee blogs. Even now, six years older and perhaps a little wiser, I see myself in Draxie and in blackbindings, and hope to see myself reflected in the wisdom (if not in the scathing, biting commentary) of paleandghostly. Rainjoy is fond of mythology, and of the connections made in literature: the fandom is the Greek chorus, but the narrative of the fandom goes out of the way to separate them. A chorus, in Greek plays, was homogenous. Here, it seems that's what the fandom is fighting: fighting to recognize each other as individuals, fighting to recognize themselves as individuals, and fighting, first and foremost, to recognize the Ghost and Phalanx as individuals and not deities among a city of 8.6 million.
Part of what I find fascinating about Rainjoy is how she flocks to these tropes and completely subverts them. We start out with Kurt (the Ghost) as the protagonist, and Blaine (Phalanx) as the deuteragonist, or secondary main character. But quickly you find that Phalanx has his own strengths. Blaine is Kurt's "pressman" and feels the things the two endure so strongly and intimately; Kurt cares so much about those he helps that he almost steps out of himself, and puts everything else (including his emotions) aside, in order to fix situations and save people. And you come to realize that Kurt and Blaine rely on each other far more than this is a primary/secondary relationship. Like any healthy, serious relationship, it has give and take.
The story starts in media res—the Ghost has been on the job for five years. We pick up things that have happened in the past, such as the fire in which the Ghost was so seriously injured and where he met Mike and Tina. We hear, over and over, "this is the fandom that holds its vigils": they have been here before, and the audience was not privy to it. We pick up hints, here and there, and there are a few interludes where we see what happened before the story started in earnest. And the beauty of all this is that, like the super-less reality we live in, the story goes millions of years behind us, and will go on far beyond us. It keeps going, no matter how little of it we hear. And it takes on a life of its own, just like the Ghost and Phalanx do.
(My god, Rainjoy is a genius, I could go on about this all day—)
Most of all—or perhaps not, who am I to say?—this is a love story. It was written about two characters who fall in love, who learn the differences between admiration and hero-worship and lust and attraction and affection and love. Who have to make horrible choices, and who have to deal with unimaginable images and pain, both physical and emotional. And two people who become counterparts to each other, if not in personality than in support. Where one is weak, the other helps; when both are weak, they lean on each other and limp to safety.
This is a love story. It is a Greek tragedy, and a Greek comedy. It is a fantasy and a dark exploration of the human mind and body.
It's All the Other Ghosts.
(10/10 stars, honestly, still probably one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing, original characters or not)
This brings me back to that era, in my own reminiscences and in what I think may be the most ingenious part of AtOG: the fandom. The Ghost and Phalanx (and oh, we'll get to them) have their own fandom, and it's through there that you get outside perspective, and it allows the reader to intimately connect with what is going on. I'm sure there were sentences in those sections that were stolen verbatim from Glee blogs. Even now, six years older and perhaps a little wiser, I see myself in Draxie and in blackbindings, and hope to see myself reflected in the wisdom (if not in the scathing, biting commentary) of paleandghostly. Rainjoy is fond of mythology, and of the connections made in literature: the fandom is the Greek chorus, but the narrative of the fandom goes out of the way to separate them. A chorus, in Greek plays, was homogenous. Here, it seems that's what the fandom is fighting: fighting to recognize each other as individuals, fighting to recognize themselves as individuals, and fighting, first and foremost, to recognize the Ghost and Phalanx as individuals and not deities among a city of 8.6 million.
Part of what I find fascinating about Rainjoy is how she flocks to these tropes and completely subverts them. We start out with Kurt (the Ghost) as the protagonist, and Blaine (Phalanx) as the deuteragonist, or secondary main character. But quickly you find that Phalanx has his own strengths. Blaine is Kurt's "pressman" and feels the things the two endure so strongly and intimately; Kurt cares so much about those he helps that he almost steps out of himself, and puts everything else (including his emotions) aside, in order to fix situations and save people. And you come to realize that Kurt and Blaine rely on each other far more than this is a primary/secondary relationship. Like any healthy, serious relationship, it has give and take.
The story starts in media res—the Ghost has been on the job for five years. We pick up things that have happened in the past, such as the fire in which the Ghost was so seriously injured and where he met Mike and Tina. We hear, over and over, "this is the fandom that holds its vigils": they have been here before, and the audience was not privy to it. We pick up hints, here and there, and there are a few interludes where we see what happened before the story started in earnest. And the beauty of all this is that, like the super-less reality we live in, the story goes millions of years behind us, and will go on far beyond us. It keeps going, no matter how little of it we hear. And it takes on a life of its own, just like the Ghost and Phalanx do.
(My god, Rainjoy is a genius, I could go on about this all day—)
Most of all—or perhaps not, who am I to say?—this is a love story. It was written about two characters who fall in love, who learn the differences between admiration and hero-worship and lust and attraction and affection and love. Who have to make horrible choices, and who have to deal with unimaginable images and pain, both physical and emotional. And two people who become counterparts to each other, if not in personality than in support. Where one is weak, the other helps; when both are weak, they lean on each other and limp to safety.
This is a love story. It is a Greek tragedy, and a Greek comedy. It is a fantasy and a dark exploration of the human mind and body.
It's All the Other Ghosts.
(10/10 stars, honestly, still probably one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing, original characters or not)
May 3, 2023
Longer than I realized I was committing to. It was also darker than I expected. I would have liked more of an epilogue. I guess that’s where the sequel comes in, but I saw that it’s supposed to be angsty, so I’m not so sure it’s what I want. Also concerned about how long that one might be… But it’s well written and only in the vaguest sense connected to Glee.
January 4, 2022
I would give this absolute corker 4.5 stars
Obviously some bits could be cut because there is SO MUCH there, but I do really feel like this got me back into reading again :') I will always keep it close to my heart. This story stays in my mind forever
Obviously some bits could be cut because there is SO MUCH there, but I do really feel like this got me back into reading again :') I will always keep it close to my heart. This story stays in my mind forever
February 26, 2024
LOVE!!!
August 24, 2016
Rainjoy likes to take heavily-used tropes and take them very seriously. Thus a superheroes alternate universe, with the characters having a lot of feelings. (Also, the readers having a lot of feelings.) There's also a meditation on celebrity and real person fiction, all written and discussed by secondary original characters who form friendship bonds and have fights online. I was amazed that rainjoy wrote online culture so accurately when she's not even on Tumblr.
I assumed that "paleandghostly" would be white, with that online name, but I suppose it was supposed to be a teachable moment that she wasn't. There's this whole online fandom culture within the book. Some of the fans are poor, some mentally ill, some struggling with other issues. Admiring and having a variety of feelings about the Ghost and Phalanx gives some of the fans in fandom culture a certain amount of escapism from their own issues, while some fans are concerned for the well-being of the objects of their affection.
There was quite a lively real life fandom for "All the Other Ghosts." Some people assumed the identities of the online secondary original characters and wrote fic of the characters in the fic. Some did artwork, including the characters in their costumes, using their powers. Some made plushies. I am not an artist or a writer, but I painted a mug with the symbols for the Ghost and Phalanx. I know of at least one other person who painted a mug with a Phalanx symbol. She has a Ghost bookmark, too.
I know how interested readers can get the fic in PDF or epub format. Ping me if you're interested.
I assumed that "paleandghostly" would be white, with that online name, but I suppose it was supposed to be a teachable moment that she wasn't. There's this whole online fandom culture within the book. Some of the fans are poor, some mentally ill, some struggling with other issues. Admiring and having a variety of feelings about the Ghost and Phalanx gives some of the fans in fandom culture a certain amount of escapism from their own issues, while some fans are concerned for the well-being of the objects of their affection.
There was quite a lively real life fandom for "All the Other Ghosts." Some people assumed the identities of the online secondary original characters and wrote fic of the characters in the fic. Some did artwork, including the characters in their costumes, using their powers. Some made plushies. I am not an artist or a writer, but I painted a mug with the symbols for the Ghost and Phalanx. I know of at least one other person who painted a mug with a Phalanx symbol. She has a Ghost bookmark, too.
I know how interested readers can get the fic in PDF or epub format. Ping me if you're interested.
October 6, 2015
Oh. My. God. This was absolutely stunning. Yes, it's fanfiction. Yes, it's Glee. But oh my god, it's one of the best superhero stories I've read in a long time. This BEAST of a novel follows The Ghost, who can make himself invisible and intangible, and Phalanx, who produces interlocking green shields, and that might sound kind of corny, but this was AMAZING. In it's nature as fanfiction (and so, periodic release) it has a lot of sequential subplots that resolve and then another one comes along, but I think that kept me even more hooked through all, like 800 pages of it. This was such a beautiful love and adventure story and I am so damn excited to read the sequel.
November 28, 2016
Oh MY!!! esta es precisamente la historia culpable de mi bloqueo lector. ¡Es un fanfic! Pero su naturaleza no la hace menos hermosa, apasionante y digna de todas las lágrimas que derramé en su lectura.
Actualmente intento armarme de valor para leer la secuela pero... gosh, no estoy lista para poner mi corazón en las manos de Rainjoy de nuevo; no tan pronto.
Actualmente intento armarme de valor para leer la secuela pero... gosh, no estoy lista para poner mi corazón en las manos de Rainjoy de nuevo; no tan pronto.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews