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Poor Ghost!
When Luca drops out of his prestigious PhD programme and moves back home to Manchester, he thinks he'll take some time to consider his life the failed love affair that ended in a disastrous holiday and embarrassing exit, the pursuit of an academic life that gave him nothing but a strong sense of failure.
In need of money, and still convinced the literary life might be for him, Luca takes on a job as a ghost Andy, who has progressive MS, wants Luca to write his life story. Luca's own father had MS and eventually took his own life - making the assignment a full immersion in the dark parts of his childhood Luca has never really dealt with. Luca has his own ideas about what Andy's book should be like - but he'll have to learn how to curb his dreaming, if he ever wants to get paid.
While his love of literature and intellectual ambition might have got him so far away from his childhood in Manchester, Luca is grappling with what it means to try to go home again - how far where you're from shapes you, and how difficult your parent's past is to shake off.
In need of money, and still convinced the literary life might be for him, Luca takes on a job as a ghost Andy, who has progressive MS, wants Luca to write his life story. Luca's own father had MS and eventually took his own life - making the assignment a full immersion in the dark parts of his childhood Luca has never really dealt with. Luca has his own ideas about what Andy's book should be like - but he'll have to learn how to curb his dreaming, if he ever wants to get paid.
While his love of literature and intellectual ambition might have got him so far away from his childhood in Manchester, Luca is grappling with what it means to try to go home again - how far where you're from shapes you, and how difficult your parent's past is to shake off.
- GenresNovels21st Century
267 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 22, 2025
4 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
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July 3, 2025another addition to my tbr heavily influenced by the cover alone xx
April 11, 2025
"If there was one thing my education had taught me, it was that cash set the imagination free."
Luca has quit his PhD in the US, broken up with his girlfriend, and returned to Manchester to crash on his friend's couch. He's not figuring it out and trying to stretch his last 2,000 pounds until he dies. After his friend gives him a wake-up call, he accepts a job as a ghostwriter for a man who's had shit luck in life.
This is peak literary fiction. Amazing writing, not a lot going on, but very wordy chewings about that nothingness. The ending was very heavy, I wasn't expecting to feel that bad about it all. So rounding my 3.5 starts up for the rating.
Luca was difficult to empathize with. He's the type of dude who goes with the flow and repeats his parents' mistakes. Some bits, I enjoyed. But overall, I couldn't get the sense of it all. The best bits for me were the writing bits and spending time with Andy, everything else about Luca's romantic life or dad didn't hold my interest.
I do have to say, as someone who has finished a PhD, that defense bit where you go from student to candidate is one of the toughest things to go through. It's a very humbling experience and I can't imagine having a tough panel for it (mine was great and I had the shakes while they deliberated). So, I just want to stress that leaving and quitting while the panel is deliberating is such a choice lol I also had the intrusive thought.
Anyways, amazing writing. (I think it's a debut too). I'm just the type of reader who likes substance and action more than I do style.
PS: Who wants to go to San Michele Cemetery with me?
Bits I highlighted:
She asked me tentatively what it was like to be a graduate student in America and I sait it was a harrowing experience which, if it didn't eat you from the inside out, would transform you into a demon and make you insufferable to everyone except your own kind.
____
'How are you going to make a living?'
'I'm writing this book. I hope that it will lead to more opportunities.'
'What, do all his mates want books too? Will you become a bestselling ghostwriter of misery memoirs?'
'There's probably decent money in it. (...) I bet there are thousands of people like Andy who want to tell their stories.'
___
"I'm like a crab whereas you're like an egg. A soft-boiled egg in a cup." (I will steal this for insults, I think it sounds quite refined)
*ARC received for free, this hasn't impacted my rating/review.
Luca has quit his PhD in the US, broken up with his girlfriend, and returned to Manchester to crash on his friend's couch. He's not figuring it out and trying to stretch his last 2,000 pounds until he dies. After his friend gives him a wake-up call, he accepts a job as a ghostwriter for a man who's had shit luck in life.
This is peak literary fiction. Amazing writing, not a lot going on, but very wordy chewings about that nothingness. The ending was very heavy, I wasn't expecting to feel that bad about it all. So rounding my 3.5 starts up for the rating.
Luca was difficult to empathize with. He's the type of dude who goes with the flow and repeats his parents' mistakes. Some bits, I enjoyed. But overall, I couldn't get the sense of it all. The best bits for me were the writing bits and spending time with Andy, everything else about Luca's romantic life or dad didn't hold my interest.
I do have to say, as someone who has finished a PhD, that defense bit where you go from student to candidate is one of the toughest things to go through. It's a very humbling experience and I can't imagine having a tough panel for it (mine was great and I had the shakes while they deliberated). So, I just want to stress that leaving and quitting while the panel is deliberating is such a choice lol I also had the intrusive thought.
Anyways, amazing writing. (I think it's a debut too). I'm just the type of reader who likes substance and action more than I do style.
PS: Who wants to go to San Michele Cemetery with me?
Bits I highlighted:
She asked me tentatively what it was like to be a graduate student in America and I sait it was a harrowing experience which, if it didn't eat you from the inside out, would transform you into a demon and make you insufferable to everyone except your own kind.
____
'How are you going to make a living?'
'I'm writing this book. I hope that it will lead to more opportunities.'
'What, do all his mates want books too? Will you become a bestselling ghostwriter of misery memoirs?'
'There's probably decent money in it. (...) I bet there are thousands of people like Andy who want to tell their stories.'
___
"I'm like a crab whereas you're like an egg. A soft-boiled egg in a cup." (I will steal this for insults, I think it sounds quite refined)
*ARC received for free, this hasn't impacted my rating/review.
January 21, 2025
A beautifully-written, poignant look at masculinity, class and frustrated ambition. Luca is a young man stuck between two worlds – working-class Manchester and bourgeois Cambridge, MA – who can't quite bring himself to fully integrate into either place. It's reflective and emotive without ever being whiny – I've rarely read a book about class conflict whose characters feel like real, contradictory people rather than avatars of their class position. It seems crass to say this is essential reading, but, well, it is!
March 27, 2025
3.5*
this was a proof copy (someone keeps leaving/donating proof copies round islington lol) and i liked the idea, liked the writing, liked every single character except the main guy. kept forgetting his name, his two features were 1. drinks too much and 2. quits his phd
this was a proof copy (someone keeps leaving/donating proof copies round islington lol) and i liked the idea, liked the writing, liked every single character except the main guy. kept forgetting his name, his two features were 1. drinks too much and 2. quits his phd
May 22, 2025
Luca has quit. Quit his phd at Harvard, quit America, quit the maybe blossoming relationship with hot poet Mia. He find himself back in Manchester, living with his friend, finally reckoning with his father’s death 16 years earlier. Then he gets an offer to ghostwrite a memoir of sorts for an older man Andy who suffers from MS. Which Luca’s dad had too.
If this was an AITA post on reddit the resolution would be everyone sucks. Everyone sucks! Luca sucks because god almighty at some point wind your neck in? His friend Tom sorta sucks because he’s mean unprovoked. Andy sucks because he does kind of think his life has been more interesting than it seems. Mia innocent.
I’d say this sits at a solid 3.5 for me. I think it was trying to tackle some big topics but it was hard to get past the end of Luca’s nose for long enough to really care about them. Writing nice though!
*read via NetGalley
If this was an AITA post on reddit the resolution would be everyone sucks. Everyone sucks! Luca sucks because god almighty at some point wind your neck in? His friend Tom sorta sucks because he’s mean unprovoked. Andy sucks because he does kind of think his life has been more interesting than it seems. Mia innocent.
I’d say this sits at a solid 3.5 for me. I think it was trying to tackle some big topics but it was hard to get past the end of Luca’s nose for long enough to really care about them. Writing nice though!
*read via NetGalley
February 21, 2025
3⭐️
pros ✅
- masterful use of similes and metaphors throughout: “…the nihilism that ran through me like a bruise in an apple,” and “i had turned myself inside out like a trouser pocket,” to name just two that made me content
- plenty of relatable themes (returning to home and feeling lost being the most evocative & applicable to what i’ve felt recently)
- very quick read, well structured and paced
- found the flashbacks with luca and his dad very sad and very well delivered
- tom! a very realistic and likeable friend. good at tough love and pragmatic care
- coming of age plotless kind of book which focuses more on character, which i enjoy
cons ❌
- luca was a self-aggrandising, insecure, impulsive twerp who i just didn’t like
- particularly unsettled by luca’s obsession with mia: at first it seemed that they’d had a proper, long-term, serious relationship. but it didn’t seem like more than a fling over quite a short period of time? and the brief sections with the two of them together had an air of discomfort/competition
- luca upping & leaving mia in her sleep - when HE was the one INFATUATED with her - felt like a really odd choice? then he’s anxiously checking his phone for a text from her, then being disappointed that she’s not got in touch, but like…obviously she’s not going to text you? you disappeared at 3am? and you were also… just a fling?
- andy was also a stubborn arsehole, my patience was wearing thin and my pity for him became limited
pros ✅
- masterful use of similes and metaphors throughout: “…the nihilism that ran through me like a bruise in an apple,” and “i had turned myself inside out like a trouser pocket,” to name just two that made me content
- plenty of relatable themes (returning to home and feeling lost being the most evocative & applicable to what i’ve felt recently)
- very quick read, well structured and paced
- found the flashbacks with luca and his dad very sad and very well delivered
- tom! a very realistic and likeable friend. good at tough love and pragmatic care
- coming of age plotless kind of book which focuses more on character, which i enjoy
cons ❌
- luca was a self-aggrandising, insecure, impulsive twerp who i just didn’t like
- particularly unsettled by luca’s obsession with mia: at first it seemed that they’d had a proper, long-term, serious relationship. but it didn’t seem like more than a fling over quite a short period of time? and the brief sections with the two of them together had an air of discomfort/competition
- luca upping & leaving mia in her sleep - when HE was the one INFATUATED with her - felt like a really odd choice? then he’s anxiously checking his phone for a text from her, then being disappointed that she’s not got in touch, but like…obviously she’s not going to text you? you disappeared at 3am? and you were also… just a fling?
- andy was also a stubborn arsehole, my patience was wearing thin and my pity for him became limited
tried-not-for-me
January 30, 2025 Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the eARC
This book delivers what it promises : a story about a man struggling after his failing at his PhD, coming back to his hometown and being offered a job to write the story of another man. Frustrated ambition, intelletucalism and memories are the centre of the book, down to its structure. We follow our narrator in the present timeline and wander into the past before coming to the present.
Once again, books set in a contemporary setting and telling a story of day to day life isn't for me. I couldn't connect with Luca and found him quite unlikable, despite my empathy. Normally, I don't really mind unlikable characters as long as I am invested in their story. Saddly, it wasn't the case here, leading me to put the book aside half way through.
It's not that the book is bad. It is well enough written, not the most vivid prose I've read, but doing it's job. But the overall sense of misery and the movement between present and past had a tendency to annoy me, and I had no drive to pursue my reading, so here we are.
People looing for a quite realistic novel, with themes of lose, failure, love and stories might find this book to their liking.
This book delivers what it promises : a story about a man struggling after his failing at his PhD, coming back to his hometown and being offered a job to write the story of another man. Frustrated ambition, intelletucalism and memories are the centre of the book, down to its structure. We follow our narrator in the present timeline and wander into the past before coming to the present.
Once again, books set in a contemporary setting and telling a story of day to day life isn't for me. I couldn't connect with Luca and found him quite unlikable, despite my empathy. Normally, I don't really mind unlikable characters as long as I am invested in their story. Saddly, it wasn't the case here, leading me to put the book aside half way through.
It's not that the book is bad. It is well enough written, not the most vivid prose I've read, but doing it's job. But the overall sense of misery and the movement between present and past had a tendency to annoy me, and I had no drive to pursue my reading, so here we are.
People looing for a quite realistic novel, with themes of lose, failure, love and stories might find this book to their liking.
July 20, 2025
One long whine
—
Am I missing something here? I found this really difficult to read, like striding through molasses, and I can even look past the one-sided vision of Manchester (where I’m from, if I’m from anywhere) to assess a novel about a writer. Stories about storymakers are always interesting—sorry, usually interesting, but this was one long whine. Not for me.
Meanwhile: Luca returns to his hometown of Manchester in the North of England in the wake of a failed relationship and abandoning his PhD in Massachusetts. He relies on the kindness of an old friend and his partner who help him to land a job as a ghostwriter for Andy who is writing his life story. Andy lives MS; Luca’s dad died of it. Cue survivor’s guilt, new-ish adult angst, classist imposter syndrome, romantic ennui.
Give. Me. A. Break. You don’t have to like the main character, but you need to be able to empathise with them, and I’m sorry, I couldn’t even.
—
Am I missing something here? I found this really difficult to read, like striding through molasses, and I can even look past the one-sided vision of Manchester (where I’m from, if I’m from anywhere) to assess a novel about a writer. Stories about storymakers are always interesting—sorry, usually interesting, but this was one long whine. Not for me.
Meanwhile: Luca returns to his hometown of Manchester in the North of England in the wake of a failed relationship and abandoning his PhD in Massachusetts. He relies on the kindness of an old friend and his partner who help him to land a job as a ghostwriter for Andy who is writing his life story. Andy lives MS; Luca’s dad died of it. Cue survivor’s guilt, new-ish adult angst, classist imposter syndrome, romantic ennui.
Give. Me. A. Break. You don’t have to like the main character, but you need to be able to empathise with them, and I’m sorry, I couldn’t even.
June 20, 2025
As a middle class Mancunian, I get where Luca (the main character) is coming from with some of his mixed emotions about Manchester.
Despite this, I was disappointed by the lack of nuance in which he describes Manchester, which he mostly depicts as a dreary city that peaked before he was born and is now selling out to the highest bidder.
Whilst Manchester is these things there was no room in his descriptions for anything positive with lots of street names mentioned but none of the beautiful metaphor which the main character uses to describe some of his life experiences in other parts of the novel.
The writing style is really lovely otherwise and the ending feels complete as Luca reconciles a part of his bitter attitude towards the city.
Despite this, I was disappointed by the lack of nuance in which he describes Manchester, which he mostly depicts as a dreary city that peaked before he was born and is now selling out to the highest bidder.
Whilst Manchester is these things there was no room in his descriptions for anything positive with lots of street names mentioned but none of the beautiful metaphor which the main character uses to describe some of his life experiences in other parts of the novel.
The writing style is really lovely otherwise and the ending feels complete as Luca reconciles a part of his bitter attitude towards the city.
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June 14, 2025Rating: ★★★☆☆
I liked how the themes of class, nostalgia and male connections were brought out in this novel. I'd be really interested if the author continued that in his sophomore novel. I even ended up liking how he explored language and literature. I generally am averse to reading books about that just because they're cliche but I like what Gabriel Flynn did here.
On the other hand, I cared nothing for Mia, and wasn't a fan of those parts of the novel.
I liked how the themes of class, nostalgia and male connections were brought out in this novel. I'd be really interested if the author continued that in his sophomore novel. I even ended up liking how he explored language and literature. I generally am averse to reading books about that just because they're cliche but I like what Gabriel Flynn did here.
On the other hand, I cared nothing for Mia, and wasn't a fan of those parts of the novel.
September 14, 2025
So readable. Luca is so flawed in points I struggled to root for him, but equally he is just a helpless human who is a product of his upbringing and education. Refreshing book felt quite original in themes.
December 28, 2025
As someone who lived in Manchester for a long time, Flynn’s description of city life and Mancunians were absolutely spot on, I was completely enveloped in the imagery which I adored. As for the story - it felt difficult to follow at times, slightly repetitive, but overall I enjoyed it.
May 26, 2025
Loved this book from front to back! Incredible
August 25, 2025
Very readable. I connected well with the main character (although I didn't like him much and by the end dound him very mopey, I was thoroughly invested in him and wanted to give him a shake). A bit overly focused on naming specific locations, and the failed relationship aspect I felt fizzled out a little underwhelmingly at the end (can you even call what they had a relationship?). This book had good potential but I feel just didn't quite land right somehow
October 22, 2025
A skilful debut about ambition, failure, and the push and pull of inheritance.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews