Ghost Glasses

by Rikki Goodwin

"Heartfelt, haunting, and filled with moments of gentle compassion, Ghost Glasses is the kind of book that will have you contemplating the nature of memory and the traces of love that remain once we are gone. A beautiful story about friendship, healing, and transformation."
-Paulette Kennedy, bestselling author of The Devil and Mrs. Davenport

When a sixty-years-dead lonely ghost meets the spirit of a child, she’s forced to confront the monsters haunting her to provide the child with companionship. Whether by finding others trapped in-between as they are, or contacting the girl’s living father using a smarmy paranormal investigator hunting for fame, she’s determined to succeed in her task.

But the ghost’s memory isn’t what it used to be, and reality fades more by the day. The monsters are growing more resolute. She’ll have to reunite the child with family before she forgets her mission…and herself.

Fans of “The Haunting of Velkwood” by Gwendolyn Kiste, “The Spite House” by Johnny Compton, and “It Rides a Pale Horse” by Andy Marino will enjoy “Ghost Glasses” by Rikki Goodwin.

279 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication February 24, 2026

About the author

Rikki Goodwin lives in North Carolina, where she owns a tattoo and piercing studio with her husband. Since she scares people every day as a body piercer, she figures it's only natural to also be a horror author. She's constantly bringing home potentially haunted home decor, but so far there's no ghosts in the house, just two very bad dogs.
Lovers' Leap is her debut novel.

Reviews

[booksnskates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book and I devoured it in less than 24 hours. It was absolutely brilliant from start to finish! A totally different perspective of a "ghost story". The writing flowed so well. The characters are super engaging and pull you in. Warning: it made me cry twice and it takes a lot to break me! Usually I can't stand the "memory loss" trope but the way this was written it hooked me in. Absolutely fantastic; high praise for Rikki Goodwin!

[Reading_with_AAron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Rikki Goodwin book and it was a doozy. This is well outside my normal genres of choice but I took a chance on it because the blurb sounded great and the cover is gorgeous. I really loved how much detail she put in to the ghosts personalities particularly Poppy and Addie! If you like spooky reads, solving mysteries of where these monsters come from, don’t mind a little death, then this needs to be added to your 2026 TBR! Thank you to the author and Rowan Prose Publishing for the arc. I definitely recommend this book!

[Carlos Ocampo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly engaging and creatively tackled, albeit not necessarily new as a concept. It is singularly expressive in its approach to its plot and central message. A ghost who is not only self-aware but also grappling with memory loss and the terrifying existence of other, more monstrous spirits she comes across as she travels along on her melancholic journey for connection in an endless existence where 99%, of people can't even see you, and the overarching grief that comes with being dead. Both witty and sarcastic, this story is propelled by the main character on every note of the developing plot and its take on grief as a part of human existence.

The structure is clever, weaving together Poppy's present-day narrative with her notebook entries and excerpts from August Waters' streams and interviews. Though it only happens in singles page increments at the end of chapters, you get to learn a lot of this characters personality and motivations in a most succinct manner that is wholeheartedly appreciated in a market full of bloated and bland stories. This only added to the tight pacing of the whole narrative that pushed the plot along at a nice clip and didn't feel any sort of slow at any point.

The writing itself is fun and detailed, with vivid descriptions that bring both the mundane and the monstrous to life (you see what I did there?). The author's ability to dedicate the proper detail to the scenes of genuine creepy as fuck creatures is where the text shines most in my opinion. The vivid imagery that my mind conjured up whilst reading was fun to consume as much as I side eyed that suspicious looking jacked hanging from the hook on my room door. 👀 The corn field scene was my favorite.

The world building was both subtle and familiar as a Chicago resident, and seeing daily encountered names throughout the journey was a nice ingredient mixed in with the rules of Ghost existence that author created for this book. Woot! Berwyn mentioned!

All around I had a good time with this read and would readily re-read come spooky season next time around.

[Wes Cambron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rikki Goodwin scares me!
Dread and laughs combine to make this story the ultimate ghost story.