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Beulah
Beulah is the story of Georgie, an eighteen-year-old with a talent (or affliction) for seeing ghosts. Georgie and her family have had a hard time since her father died, but she and her mother Gina and sisters Tommy and Stevie are making a new start in the small town of Beulah, Idaho where Gina’s wealthy friend Ellen has set them up to help renovate an old stone schoolhouse. Georgie experiences a variety of disturbances—the town is familiar from dreams and she seems to be experiencing her mother’s memory of the place, not to mention the creepy ghost in the schoolhouse basement—but she is able to maintain, in her own laconic way, until she notices that her little sister Stevie also has the gift. Stevie is in danger from a malevolent ghost, and Georgie tries to help, but soon Georgie is the one in danger.
346 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 18, 2022
44 people are currently reading
1146 people want to read
About the author
Christi Nogle
63 books136 followersChristi Nogle is the author of the Bram Stoker Award® winning novel Beulah and the short story collections The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future; Promise; and One Eye Opened in That Other Place. Follow her at http://christinogle.com and on most social media @christinogle
Christi is co-editor with Willow Dawn Becker of the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Mother: Tales of Love and Terror and with Ai Joang of Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia.
Her short stories have appeared in over fifty publications including Strange horizons, PseudoPod, Vastarien, and Dark Matter Magazine along with anthologies such as C.M Muller’s Nightscript and Flame Tree’s American Gothic and Chilling Crime.
Selected Praise:
One Eye Opened in That Other Place
“An utterly mesmerizing and dreamlike collection. Christi Nogle has a gift for conjuring disquieting stories, often bite-sized, of oddities and secrets, inner selves, and lasting mysteries. In One Eye Opened in That Other Place, things are never quite what they seem. Realities transform, veils are lifted, and you are shepherded across unsettling thresholds like dreams half-remembered. Haunting long after you put the collection down. If you’re after atmospheric tales with indescribably dream-logic, you will find no better.”
—Sofia Ajram, author of COUP DE GRÂCE
Promise
”There's a melancholy underneath every Nogle story, a creeping dread willing to fill any absence it can find. Promise is an exploration of our strange futures all tethered to this unmistakable voice, one that will guide you home through the void it knows all too well."
--Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold
"Beautifully written tales of the strange possible futures threatening to impinge on us. By turns strange and tender, Nogle's weird SF captures that feeling of disorientation that is at the heart of what it means to be (or to try to be) human in a transforming, damaged world and in all the worlds adjacent to it."
—Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future
"An astonishingly original collection of dark tales - mysterious, haunting, challenging and disturbing, written in crystalline prose as compressed as poetry. Read and then reread and be doubly rewarded!"
-- Ramsey Campbell, author of Fellstones
"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."
-- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
Christi is co-editor with Willow Dawn Becker of the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Mother: Tales of Love and Terror and with Ai Joang of Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia.
Her short stories have appeared in over fifty publications including Strange horizons, PseudoPod, Vastarien, and Dark Matter Magazine along with anthologies such as C.M Muller’s Nightscript and Flame Tree’s American Gothic and Chilling Crime.
Selected Praise:
One Eye Opened in That Other Place
“An utterly mesmerizing and dreamlike collection. Christi Nogle has a gift for conjuring disquieting stories, often bite-sized, of oddities and secrets, inner selves, and lasting mysteries. In One Eye Opened in That Other Place, things are never quite what they seem. Realities transform, veils are lifted, and you are shepherded across unsettling thresholds like dreams half-remembered. Haunting long after you put the collection down. If you’re after atmospheric tales with indescribably dream-logic, you will find no better.”
—Sofia Ajram, author of COUP DE GRÂCE
Promise
”There's a melancholy underneath every Nogle story, a creeping dread willing to fill any absence it can find. Promise is an exploration of our strange futures all tethered to this unmistakable voice, one that will guide you home through the void it knows all too well."
--Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold
"Beautifully written tales of the strange possible futures threatening to impinge on us. By turns strange and tender, Nogle's weird SF captures that feeling of disorientation that is at the heart of what it means to be (or to try to be) human in a transforming, damaged world and in all the worlds adjacent to it."
—Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future
"An astonishingly original collection of dark tales - mysterious, haunting, challenging and disturbing, written in crystalline prose as compressed as poetry. Read and then reread and be doubly rewarded!"
-- Ramsey Campbell, author of Fellstones
"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."
-- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
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February 26, 2022
Horror, ultimately, is about people. The knife is meaningless unless it’s got a body to cut to ribbons. The monster isn’t scary without someone to chase. The universe isn’t cold and uncaring without someone who desperately wants it to be the opposite. When talking about horror—where it’s gone and where it’s going—it’s important to remember the lens through which we view it. Because, after all, we are the lens.
Christi Nogle’s Beulah understands this better than most. Here we have a debut novel as steeped in people as it is in ghosts (although it has plenty of both). It’s a quiet book of big emotions, disenchantment, and mental illness—but most of all, it’s a story about people. People fighting, loving, excusing, and of course, coming of age. Some will say this is not a horror novel at all, or give it a blue-ribbon genre title like “elevated horror” or “post horror.” Whatever you want to call it, Beulah is an engaging tale filled with vividly drawn characters and heart-wrenching sadness.
Beulah takes place in the small town of Beulah, Idaho, where Georgie, her mother, and two sisters have come to help an old friend renovate a house. While this may sound like a typical set-up, and could send the dominoes falling toward a familiar outcome (house is haunted, family is scared, horror ensues), Nogle centers the novel’s journey on Georgie and her internal perspective. Told in sharply written first-person, Georgie isn’t just the main character, she’s truly the heart of the novel—even more so than the titular Beulah.
In getting to know Georgie, who is blessed/cursed with the ability to see ghosts (another horror trope that doesn’t go quite where you expect), I was reminded me of SP Miskowski’s immediate and voicey I Wish I Was Like You—another novel that featured a difficult young woman coming to grips with a setting-as-character.
And while it may not sound like a selling point, Georgie’s frustrating nature is really one of Beulah’s greatest strengths. In many ways, the character is all the more poignantly depicted for her own flaws. There’s no getting around it—Georgie is a piece of work. She’s detached, depressed, sometimes oblivious to others emotions, sometimes precisely empathic; she’s self-centered, lazy, and at other times demonstrably kind and caring to her family. Frankly, she’s a mess. But, this mess at the center of the story is what makes for such a lucid coming of age tale. Georgie is a fuck-up, but we’re rooting for her the whole time to finally figure it out.
It bears mentioning though that Georgie isn’t the only character here. Her mother, sisters, and sort-of love interests are depicted with an eye for detail and truth. Still, it is Beulah—the town—that stays with me. Nogle expertly captures the feel of small town Idaho as a place stuck out of time. As a former Idahoan, there’s a sense of remoteness and disconnect living in the Gem State that lends itself well to a novel about ghosts. In many ways, Georgie and her family, in coming to Beulah, mirror the specters that toil in oblivion beneath their noses.
Beulah has a lot of masterful character work, but it is still important to remember that this is a novel of supernatural horror. And just as it delivers on selling us its cast and setting, so too does it create an interesting and unsettling depiction of the afterlife. The ghosts in Beulah are strange. They flit at the corners of your vision, they appear as shadows, they get locked into the labor of their lives. They sometimes interact with people, but when they do, it’s an absent-minded parody of human connection. In Beulah, ghosts are vaguely sentient patterns. It seems fitting then, that Georgie, as she comes of age, must decide which of her patterns are most important to break for her to grow.
Beulah is a confident debut novel from a powerhouse of a writer. Nogle creates a world for us to live in and populates it with people torn from the periphery of our own lives. The people are not perfect, but they feel real. And when horror comes for them—as it comes for us all, eventually—their shudders and shakes might as well be our own.
Christi Nogle’s Beulah understands this better than most. Here we have a debut novel as steeped in people as it is in ghosts (although it has plenty of both). It’s a quiet book of big emotions, disenchantment, and mental illness—but most of all, it’s a story about people. People fighting, loving, excusing, and of course, coming of age. Some will say this is not a horror novel at all, or give it a blue-ribbon genre title like “elevated horror” or “post horror.” Whatever you want to call it, Beulah is an engaging tale filled with vividly drawn characters and heart-wrenching sadness.
Beulah takes place in the small town of Beulah, Idaho, where Georgie, her mother, and two sisters have come to help an old friend renovate a house. While this may sound like a typical set-up, and could send the dominoes falling toward a familiar outcome (house is haunted, family is scared, horror ensues), Nogle centers the novel’s journey on Georgie and her internal perspective. Told in sharply written first-person, Georgie isn’t just the main character, she’s truly the heart of the novel—even more so than the titular Beulah.
In getting to know Georgie, who is blessed/cursed with the ability to see ghosts (another horror trope that doesn’t go quite where you expect), I was reminded me of SP Miskowski’s immediate and voicey I Wish I Was Like You—another novel that featured a difficult young woman coming to grips with a setting-as-character.
And while it may not sound like a selling point, Georgie’s frustrating nature is really one of Beulah’s greatest strengths. In many ways, the character is all the more poignantly depicted for her own flaws. There’s no getting around it—Georgie is a piece of work. She’s detached, depressed, sometimes oblivious to others emotions, sometimes precisely empathic; she’s self-centered, lazy, and at other times demonstrably kind and caring to her family. Frankly, she’s a mess. But, this mess at the center of the story is what makes for such a lucid coming of age tale. Georgie is a fuck-up, but we’re rooting for her the whole time to finally figure it out.
It bears mentioning though that Georgie isn’t the only character here. Her mother, sisters, and sort-of love interests are depicted with an eye for detail and truth. Still, it is Beulah—the town—that stays with me. Nogle expertly captures the feel of small town Idaho as a place stuck out of time. As a former Idahoan, there’s a sense of remoteness and disconnect living in the Gem State that lends itself well to a novel about ghosts. In many ways, Georgie and her family, in coming to Beulah, mirror the specters that toil in oblivion beneath their noses.
Beulah has a lot of masterful character work, but it is still important to remember that this is a novel of supernatural horror. And just as it delivers on selling us its cast and setting, so too does it create an interesting and unsettling depiction of the afterlife. The ghosts in Beulah are strange. They flit at the corners of your vision, they appear as shadows, they get locked into the labor of their lives. They sometimes interact with people, but when they do, it’s an absent-minded parody of human connection. In Beulah, ghosts are vaguely sentient patterns. It seems fitting then, that Georgie, as she comes of age, must decide which of her patterns are most important to break for her to grow.
Beulah is a confident debut novel from a powerhouse of a writer. Nogle creates a world for us to live in and populates it with people torn from the periphery of our own lives. The people are not perfect, but they feel real. And when horror comes for them—as it comes for us all, eventually—their shudders and shakes might as well be our own.
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May 21, 2024"Las emociones son insoportablemente fuertes y se desfamiliarizan cuando uno está fuera del cuerpo. ¿Qué es el miedo sin pulso ni sudor? ¿Qué es la tristeza cuando uno no tiene forma de llorar, ni garganta que apretar? ¿O la rabia sin puños?"
Una historia original en la forma de abordar el tema fantasmas, es intimista, onírica y psicológica, pero no fue para mí.
En primera persona nos adentra en la vida de Georgie, una adolescente de 17 años que puede ver e interactuar con fantasmas, y que siempre ha tenido grandes cambios en su vida desde que comenzó esta habilidad. En su presente nos relata que se va a vivir al pueblo de Beulah junto a su madre y dos hermanas menores.
Beulah ha resultado ser algo que no esperaba, fui con mucha curiosidad pero sin expectativas, y descubrí una novela que se aleja de la típica historia de fantasmas para adentrarnos en una visión diferentes de estas presencias, con percepciones multidimensionales y caóticas que desencadenan un sinfín de sentimientos, tanto de la protagonista, como de su entorno ante esta habilidad que la define y que la dota de ciertas características.
Tiene muchas características positivas, sin lugar a dudas no es un mal libro, me gusta el trasfondo y concepto que plantea con el tema de la identidad y todo lo que ello conlleva, ademas de poseer un plano fantasmal que sumerge con excelentes descripciones inmersivas, aunque sin generar escenas terroríficas para el lector, el terror aquí está ligado al ámbito interno.
Mi pero está en que no conecte con ningún personaje, sus motivos no me convencieron, la visión y voz de la protagonista no fue para mí, todo lo percibí demasiado juvenil(por obvias razones, la edad), y gran parte de la novela es ahondar en la visión de Georgie, nuestra narradora poco fiable (lo que pudo haber funcionado), y realmente después de un momento ya me estaba aburriendo leer tantas veces las mismas inquietudes, gran parte sin evolución, en el desenlace se pueden apreciar nuevas perspectivas y avances(últimas 100 pág), antes de eso son todas inquietudes internas de una adolescente que tiene una situación muy interesante, puede ver fantasmas y hacer otras cosas con respecto a lo mismo, y como esto la afecta en su vida cotidiana en cuanto a relación con chicos, amigos y familia, y eso no fue para mí. Por otro lado, la mamá de ella tenía una actitud que me molestaba y me parecía infantil, y las hermanas estaban ahí como personajes funcionales, con un desarrollo correcto para la trama.
Al inicio me gustaba el tono melancólico y el caos interno que existía con el planteamiento que se estaba entreviendo, lo mismo con su final, pero para mí se quedó en eso.
Hay una característica que si me gustó la cual es cómo ella se relaciona directamente con los fantasmas y que le da un toque inquietante a la historia y a la habilidad que tiene Georgie, el tema fantasmas en esta historia no es terrorífico para el lector, lo terrorífico, como dije antes, está más bien enfocado al ámbito interno de los personajes con lo que no logré conectar, no sentí en ningún momento sus emociones durante el desarrollo.
Una historia original en la forma de abordar el tema fantasmas, es intimista, onírica y psicológica, pero no fue para mí.
En primera persona nos adentra en la vida de Georgie, una adolescente de 17 años que puede ver e interactuar con fantasmas, y que siempre ha tenido grandes cambios en su vida desde que comenzó esta habilidad. En su presente nos relata que se va a vivir al pueblo de Beulah junto a su madre y dos hermanas menores.
Beulah ha resultado ser algo que no esperaba, fui con mucha curiosidad pero sin expectativas, y descubrí una novela que se aleja de la típica historia de fantasmas para adentrarnos en una visión diferentes de estas presencias, con percepciones multidimensionales y caóticas que desencadenan un sinfín de sentimientos, tanto de la protagonista, como de su entorno ante esta habilidad que la define y que la dota de ciertas características.
Tiene muchas características positivas, sin lugar a dudas no es un mal libro, me gusta el trasfondo y concepto que plantea con el tema de la identidad y todo lo que ello conlleva, ademas de poseer un plano fantasmal que sumerge con excelentes descripciones inmersivas, aunque sin generar escenas terroríficas para el lector, el terror aquí está ligado al ámbito interno.
Mi pero está en que no conecte con ningún personaje, sus motivos no me convencieron, la visión y voz de la protagonista no fue para mí, todo lo percibí demasiado juvenil(por obvias razones, la edad), y gran parte de la novela es ahondar en la visión de Georgie, nuestra narradora poco fiable (lo que pudo haber funcionado), y realmente después de un momento ya me estaba aburriendo leer tantas veces las mismas inquietudes, gran parte sin evolución, en el desenlace se pueden apreciar nuevas perspectivas y avances(últimas 100 pág), antes de eso son todas inquietudes internas de una adolescente que tiene una situación muy interesante, puede ver fantasmas y hacer otras cosas con respecto a lo mismo, y como esto la afecta en su vida cotidiana en cuanto a relación con chicos, amigos y familia, y eso no fue para mí. Por otro lado, la mamá de ella tenía una actitud que me molestaba y me parecía infantil, y las hermanas estaban ahí como personajes funcionales, con un desarrollo correcto para la trama.
Al inicio me gustaba el tono melancólico y el caos interno que existía con el planteamiento que se estaba entreviendo, lo mismo con su final, pero para mí se quedó en eso.
Hay una característica que si me gustó la cual es cómo ella se relaciona directamente con los fantasmas y que le da un toque inquietante a la historia y a la habilidad que tiene Georgie, el tema fantasmas en esta historia no es terrorífico para el lector, lo terrorífico, como dije antes, está más bien enfocado al ámbito interno de los personajes con lo que no logré conectar, no sentí en ningún momento sus emociones durante el desarrollo.
March 21, 2022
Nogle, like all writers with a rare knack coupled with incredible skill and imagination, makes everything she writes look easy and effortlessly ingenious. Even the Table of Contents of her latest novel, Beulah, reflects that sense of effortless ingenuity (The beginning chapter is called "When you talk to the dead", followed by 12 month named titles, followed by the last chapter, "When you walk with the dead"). I’ve been lucky enough to publish Nogle's short stories twice now, and I hope to publish her work many more times in the future. My initial reaction to reading this debut novel is simply this: how in the hell could this be anyone’s first novel? It’s so assured, so masterful, so in control at every level. This is not the typical mess of even the most talented writer’s first attempt at that tricky long form. This is the work of a top tier author in top form. Anyone writing a book blurb is tempted to summarize the plot and shower the book (and writer) with hyperbolic praise. I won’t do the former, and I promise you I’m not doing the latter. Nogle has all the goods, a singularly weird imagination, a tremendous sense of pacing and voice, and a mastery of clarity and control on the sentence level. Beulah will easily prove to be one of the best horror novels (never mind debut novels) of 2022. Read it.
February 11, 2024
Para entrar en el pueblo de Beulah es necesario cruzar un puente. Un enlace genera un vínculo que va más allá de tener que superar las inclemencias de un terreno cuyo final se diluye en la distancia. Supone adentrarse en el pasado y encarar los fantasmas que protegen a los recuerdos que se agazapan en el olvido. Cruzar su propio Rubicón y adquirir la conciencia de que no habrá marcha atrás, pese a que tus dedos tiriten ante las miradas perdidas de todas esas presencias.
Es el mismo lector quien tendrá que cruzar esas tablas hacia Beulah si quiere adentrarse en esta propuesta ganadora del premio Bram Stoker. Nada de lo que le espera tras esas páginas se va a acercar a las expectativas que pudiera crear en una novela tan densa y compleja como es el debut en la narración de Christi Noggle. Es cierto que lo que encontrarás entre líneas son apariciones fantasmales, alguna de ellas estremecedoras. De hecho, la lucha de Georgie, la protagonista de esta novela, por controlar la influencia de estas apariciones centra gran parte de la trama de la historia. Conoceremos su pasado y cómo este le ha permitido macerar ciertas precauciones hacia esas entidades, la cuales harán lo que sea por compartir esa soledad que las atenaza en el tiempo. También es verdad que algunos de estos espectros ponen los pelos de punta en más de una ocasión, quizás por el modo tan inteligente que tiene Noggle de sorprender al lector derribando las defensas que se generan en una narración tan lenta y aparentemente anodina. Y no deja de ser menos cierto que el miedo se palpa en los pensamientos que irán fluyendo al adentrarnos en la torturada mente de Georgie, que busca su pequeño lugar en el mundo a través de su poco fiable manera de entender sus circunstancias.
Pero la novela vencedora al mejor debut en los Stoker plantea otras realidades tanto o más estremecedoras como las que el lector quiera descubrir. Ese es el puente que se le exigirá cruzar, el que se llenará de espectros que gritan, que espantan, que invitan a abandonar tu camino en la lectura para dar marcha atrás y abandonar el libro en más de una ocasión.
Para encontrar el terror silente que empapa Beulah tendríamos que adentrarnos en nuestra propia memoria. En la adolescencia y en cada uno de los miedos que emergen ante la incomprensión, la soledad, la frustración o el coqueteo con la intrascendencia de una vida que no comprendemos. Nuestra protagonista gritará, como cualquier heroína de terror, aunque sus alaridos no se escucharán más allá de sus labios. Se asustará ante lo inesperado, pese a que las fuentes de sus miedos se materialicen en reproches contenidos en una hiriente mirada. Sangrará, aunque sus heridas sean meras trazas de lágrimas que suplican un momento de pausa. Los miedos que sufrirá Georgie son tan cercanos que se sienten como propios, universales y reconocibles, convirtiendo esta historia en algo mucho más terrible que una sucesión de fantasmas que permanecen varados en su propio tiempo.
Hasta que Nogle decide que, quizás, todo esos miedos son más reales de lo que intuye el lector.
Con una factura impecable, tramposa, llena de capas que profundizan en las emociones, secretos y mentiras, promesas y deudas por cumplir, los personajes que habitan en Beulah son tan terroríficos como cualquier fantasma que puedas esperar. Pero para ello el lector también tendrá que cruzar ese puente. Desde allí, las vistas serán espeluznantes.
Es el mismo lector quien tendrá que cruzar esas tablas hacia Beulah si quiere adentrarse en esta propuesta ganadora del premio Bram Stoker. Nada de lo que le espera tras esas páginas se va a acercar a las expectativas que pudiera crear en una novela tan densa y compleja como es el debut en la narración de Christi Noggle. Es cierto que lo que encontrarás entre líneas son apariciones fantasmales, alguna de ellas estremecedoras. De hecho, la lucha de Georgie, la protagonista de esta novela, por controlar la influencia de estas apariciones centra gran parte de la trama de la historia. Conoceremos su pasado y cómo este le ha permitido macerar ciertas precauciones hacia esas entidades, la cuales harán lo que sea por compartir esa soledad que las atenaza en el tiempo. También es verdad que algunos de estos espectros ponen los pelos de punta en más de una ocasión, quizás por el modo tan inteligente que tiene Noggle de sorprender al lector derribando las defensas que se generan en una narración tan lenta y aparentemente anodina. Y no deja de ser menos cierto que el miedo se palpa en los pensamientos que irán fluyendo al adentrarnos en la torturada mente de Georgie, que busca su pequeño lugar en el mundo a través de su poco fiable manera de entender sus circunstancias.
Pero la novela vencedora al mejor debut en los Stoker plantea otras realidades tanto o más estremecedoras como las que el lector quiera descubrir. Ese es el puente que se le exigirá cruzar, el que se llenará de espectros que gritan, que espantan, que invitan a abandonar tu camino en la lectura para dar marcha atrás y abandonar el libro en más de una ocasión.
Para encontrar el terror silente que empapa Beulah tendríamos que adentrarnos en nuestra propia memoria. En la adolescencia y en cada uno de los miedos que emergen ante la incomprensión, la soledad, la frustración o el coqueteo con la intrascendencia de una vida que no comprendemos. Nuestra protagonista gritará, como cualquier heroína de terror, aunque sus alaridos no se escucharán más allá de sus labios. Se asustará ante lo inesperado, pese a que las fuentes de sus miedos se materialicen en reproches contenidos en una hiriente mirada. Sangrará, aunque sus heridas sean meras trazas de lágrimas que suplican un momento de pausa. Los miedos que sufrirá Georgie son tan cercanos que se sienten como propios, universales y reconocibles, convirtiendo esta historia en algo mucho más terrible que una sucesión de fantasmas que permanecen varados en su propio tiempo.
Hasta que Nogle decide que, quizás, todo esos miedos son más reales de lo que intuye el lector.
Con una factura impecable, tramposa, llena de capas que profundizan en las emociones, secretos y mentiras, promesas y deudas por cumplir, los personajes que habitan en Beulah son tan terroríficos como cualquier fantasma que puedas esperar. Pero para ello el lector también tendrá que cruzar ese puente. Desde allí, las vistas serán espeluznantes.
February 4, 2024
La reseña completa en https://inthenevernever.blogspot.com/...
«Cuando hables con un muerto —si lo haces; no puedo saber a ciencia cierta si lo harás—, conviene que tengas en cuenta algunas cosas:
Tienes que tener claro que nada de lo que digan tendrá importancia para ti. Querrán hacerte formar parte de su tragedia. Eso es un hecho. Querrán empatizar contigo. Querrán que seas su nuevo mejor amigo e intentarán que su mundo te parezca más real que el tuyo».
¿Cómo sería tu vida si pudieses ver fantasmas? ¿Qué ocurriría si en cada lugar al que llegas puedes ver las sombras de aquellos que vivieron allí y se sienten conectados a ese sitio? ¿Si eres tan receptiva como para revivir los recuerdos de tu madre? Hoy les quiero hablar de Beulah, de Christi Nogle. Un libro de terror intimista en el que el horror no solo viene de las apariciones que ve nuestra protagonista, sino de la imposibilidad de encontrar un lugar en el que encajar y pertenecer. Una novela ganadora del Premio Bram Stoker que nos llega con la traducción de José Ángel de Dios y una inquietante cubierta de Ah Taut.
«Cuando hables con un muerto —si lo haces; no puedo saber a ciencia cierta si lo harás—, conviene que tengas en cuenta algunas cosas:
Tienes que tener claro que nada de lo que digan tendrá importancia para ti. Querrán hacerte formar parte de su tragedia. Eso es un hecho. Querrán empatizar contigo. Querrán que seas su nuevo mejor amigo e intentarán que su mundo te parezca más real que el tuyo».
¿Cómo sería tu vida si pudieses ver fantasmas? ¿Qué ocurriría si en cada lugar al que llegas puedes ver las sombras de aquellos que vivieron allí y se sienten conectados a ese sitio? ¿Si eres tan receptiva como para revivir los recuerdos de tu madre? Hoy les quiero hablar de Beulah, de Christi Nogle. Un libro de terror intimista en el que el horror no solo viene de las apariciones que ve nuestra protagonista, sino de la imposibilidad de encontrar un lugar en el que encajar y pertenecer. Una novela ganadora del Premio Bram Stoker que nos llega con la traducción de José Ángel de Dios y una inquietante cubierta de Ah Taut.
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July 31, 2022What a creepy concept! Not only to be able to see the dead but for them to force you from your own body so that they can take it over. Even worse is the discovery that your younger sister has the same talents and is open to the same problem.
In a somewhat dysfunctional family, Georgie, generally a loner, finds friendship of a kind with those in the ghost world. These interactions only serve to increase her 'separateness' from family and the world around her who view her as an oddity. As time goes on however, she finds that her younger sister, Stevie, is at risk from the spirit world too and so she tries to guide her away from danger.
An entertaining and thought-provoking tale on the nature of family and the ties that bind them together although my maternal head wanted to give the mother, Gina, a good talking to!
In a somewhat dysfunctional family, Georgie, generally a loner, finds friendship of a kind with those in the ghost world. These interactions only serve to increase her 'separateness' from family and the world around her who view her as an oddity. As time goes on however, she finds that her younger sister, Stevie, is at risk from the spirit world too and so she tries to guide her away from danger.
An entertaining and thought-provoking tale on the nature of family and the ties that bind them together although my maternal head wanted to give the mother, Gina, a good talking to!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2022
Beulah, the first novel from Christi Nogle, is ripe with characters and circumstances that compel the reader through the story, and it is well worth the price of admission.
The story centers around Georgie, a late teen young girl with a gift: the ability to see ghosts. Her family is relocating to Beulah, a town that is filled with ghosts and memories of a past that she cannot remember. As the story unfolds, we learn that this is not the family’s first time in this small town, nor is the gift that she possesses her’s alone. This revelation leads to dangers for her and her family and she is the only one who can save them…but at what cost?
Christi Nogle has crafted a richly detailed setting that summons the reader into it’s shops and homes and hallways. And while the community is itself beautiful, it is the character of Georgia that makes this such a memorable novel.
Georgia exists in a thousand imagined histories and timelines as her ability to ‘see’ strengthens, yet she struggles to exist at peace with herself in the real timeline in which she lives. Her doubts, fears, anger, and at times selfless love for those who may seem unworthy is a pleasure to read and brought tears to my eyes at times.
While there are no monsters and few villains, this is, in my opinion, the best type of horror. The horrors of life and love and loss that are eternally real and leave the deepest wounds.
This is a wonderful first novel that I highly recommend and I look forward to reading more from Christi Nogle in the future.
I received an arc of this ebook from Cemetery Gates Media in exchange for an unbiased review.
The story centers around Georgie, a late teen young girl with a gift: the ability to see ghosts. Her family is relocating to Beulah, a town that is filled with ghosts and memories of a past that she cannot remember. As the story unfolds, we learn that this is not the family’s first time in this small town, nor is the gift that she possesses her’s alone. This revelation leads to dangers for her and her family and she is the only one who can save them…but at what cost?
Christi Nogle has crafted a richly detailed setting that summons the reader into it’s shops and homes and hallways. And while the community is itself beautiful, it is the character of Georgia that makes this such a memorable novel.
Georgia exists in a thousand imagined histories and timelines as her ability to ‘see’ strengthens, yet she struggles to exist at peace with herself in the real timeline in which she lives. Her doubts, fears, anger, and at times selfless love for those who may seem unworthy is a pleasure to read and brought tears to my eyes at times.
While there are no monsters and few villains, this is, in my opinion, the best type of horror. The horrors of life and love and loss that are eternally real and leave the deepest wounds.
This is a wonderful first novel that I highly recommend and I look forward to reading more from Christi Nogle in the future.
I received an arc of this ebook from Cemetery Gates Media in exchange for an unbiased review.
February 28, 2022
I woke up at 4:45 am, my body thinking that four hours of sleep was plenty (it was not). In that liminal state where the house slept and creaked around me, I finished the last hundred pages of Christi Nogle's Beulah. There's honestly nothing more perfect than that. I was on the couch in my pajamas blinking away tears and trying to come to terms with the fact that I should try and get at least another hour of sleep.
That did not happen.
Beautiful and perfect in its execution, Beulah is what Catcher in the Rye would look like written by Shirley Jackson. Every page drips with melancholy, the characters drawing you into their unique struggles. You care for them, wish the best for them. Want them to talk more to each other and scream when they don't.
This book speaks equally in the words unsaid. Prose that is poetic in its scarcity, beautiful in passive shades of childhood colours.
To be completely honest, there were moments where I disconnected from the story, but those moments mirrored Georgie's journey in such a perfect way that it enhanced my experience. Nogle doesn't just tell you Georgie's story, she makes you live it. She doesn't tell you Georgie is a black hole, you fall irredeemably into that void. And it's not so bad.
Christi Nogle's short fiction has done an amazing job building anticipation for this debut; now I need to figure out what to do with myself until she releases her next haunting novel.
That did not happen.
Beautiful and perfect in its execution, Beulah is what Catcher in the Rye would look like written by Shirley Jackson. Every page drips with melancholy, the characters drawing you into their unique struggles. You care for them, wish the best for them. Want them to talk more to each other and scream when they don't.
This book speaks equally in the words unsaid. Prose that is poetic in its scarcity, beautiful in passive shades of childhood colours.
To be completely honest, there were moments where I disconnected from the story, but those moments mirrored Georgie's journey in such a perfect way that it enhanced my experience. Nogle doesn't just tell you Georgie's story, she makes you live it. She doesn't tell you Georgie is a black hole, you fall irredeemably into that void. And it's not so bad.
Christi Nogle's short fiction has done an amazing job building anticipation for this debut; now I need to figure out what to do with myself until she releases her next haunting novel.
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April 25, 2022Please note: I do not rate on Goodreads.
Beulah is a character-driven novel which offers an original portrayal of the ability to see and interact with the supernatural.
The story portrays believable relationships that are sometimes tender and often troublesome. The character of Georgie was so vividly painted she will stick with me for quite some time. I also enjoyed getting to know Beulah itself.
If you enjoy 'quiet' horror you will certainly enjoy this one.
Beulah is a character-driven novel which offers an original portrayal of the ability to see and interact with the supernatural.
The story portrays believable relationships that are sometimes tender and often troublesome. The character of Georgie was so vividly painted she will stick with me for quite some time. I also enjoyed getting to know Beulah itself.
If you enjoy 'quiet' horror you will certainly enjoy this one.
July 4, 2023
As brilliantly written as this was, it was a bit of a slow burn for me, and needed a bit more action. Not just glimpses.
It's good, though. It's strong.
A relaxing summer read for horror fans would be the best way I could describe it.
I can see why it won a Stoker.
A solid 4 stars.
It's good, though. It's strong.
A relaxing summer read for horror fans would be the best way I could describe it.
I can see why it won a Stoker.
A solid 4 stars.
April 11, 2022
Okay, I haven’t read ALL the ghost stories out there, but I’d wager to say this kind of ghost story hasn’t been done often, and definitely not with such masterful atmosphere and tone. I’m somewhat mad at myself for reading it so quickly—I was growing accustomed to the way it comforted me each night before bed with its dark-yet-pleasant narration. I’m hoping to come back to this one later if it releases in audiobook, however it would take a special kind of voice actor to nail Georgie. She’s a character you won’t forget.
January 21, 2022
With a skilled and unflinching hand, Nogle guides us through layers of time and experience in Beulah. Through the eyes of reluctantly “gifted” Georgie, we see what is usually hidden—the heartbreaking and terrifying—every rich and textured detail leading to a truly satisfying payoff. I will never forget this walk with the dead.
May 8, 2024
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June 14, 2022
Christi Nogle’s debut novel, Beulah, is a fantastic novel of haunting contradictions, something it shares in common with its narrator protagonist, Georgie. It is at turns epic yet focused. Intimate, yet distant.
We follow Georgie, a young woman who is moving to the small town of Beulah, Idaho with her mom and two sisters. It's supposed to be a fresh start for all of them. There's a supportive family friend in the town who has offered them a place to stay, an old school that is being remodeled into a residential property, a do-over of a senior year in high school.
Georgie is a flighty and listless gal, a daydreamer who likes to spend her free time wandering both in the landscapes of her mind and the real world. There may be a good reason for this, too. Georgie tells us she has a gift, an ability to see the ghosts of the past and interact with them depending on the occasion. With these qualities, she comes off as an unreliable narrator at times.
Beulah's greatest strength as a novel is in its first person narration. The voice that Nogle crafts for Georgie is authentic and real—we can easily imagine that this eighteen year old is sitting there talking to us. This is a character that I'll be thinking of for the years to come.
Much of the drama and incidents that Georgie encounters in the real world is small and personal. There is sibling rivalry, fights with mom, teen struggles with romance. At the periphery of it all are the ghosts that intrude, the ones that seem to be gaining power and influence over both Georgie and her younger sister who may or may not have the gift.
In a world where all sorts of stimulation is constantly available and vying for our attention, a book like Beulah seems like an anomaly. I’ve recently seen the sentiment amongst readers online that they are beginning to prefer novellas when it comes to horror, quick reads that get in and get out with the thrills and chills. This is not that book and it is quite ambitious in that regard: a 350 page slow burning horror novel that is scant with scares and instead focuses more on family dynamics and telling a beautiful coming of age tale. Still, despite its measured pace, there are a few really good scares in here and if readers are able to meet the book on its level will be rewarded greatly as it picks up in its final third and barrels toward an electrifying and gripping conclusion.
Ultimately, I am still haunted by the totality of the story, finding myself experiencing the memories and fantasies of Georgie's ghosts as if they were my own.
"There's no distinction between memories and stories. They're all real, all the same."
We follow Georgie, a young woman who is moving to the small town of Beulah, Idaho with her mom and two sisters. It's supposed to be a fresh start for all of them. There's a supportive family friend in the town who has offered them a place to stay, an old school that is being remodeled into a residential property, a do-over of a senior year in high school.
Georgie is a flighty and listless gal, a daydreamer who likes to spend her free time wandering both in the landscapes of her mind and the real world. There may be a good reason for this, too. Georgie tells us she has a gift, an ability to see the ghosts of the past and interact with them depending on the occasion. With these qualities, she comes off as an unreliable narrator at times.
Beulah's greatest strength as a novel is in its first person narration. The voice that Nogle crafts for Georgie is authentic and real—we can easily imagine that this eighteen year old is sitting there talking to us. This is a character that I'll be thinking of for the years to come.
Much of the drama and incidents that Georgie encounters in the real world is small and personal. There is sibling rivalry, fights with mom, teen struggles with romance. At the periphery of it all are the ghosts that intrude, the ones that seem to be gaining power and influence over both Georgie and her younger sister who may or may not have the gift.
In a world where all sorts of stimulation is constantly available and vying for our attention, a book like Beulah seems like an anomaly. I’ve recently seen the sentiment amongst readers online that they are beginning to prefer novellas when it comes to horror, quick reads that get in and get out with the thrills and chills. This is not that book and it is quite ambitious in that regard: a 350 page slow burning horror novel that is scant with scares and instead focuses more on family dynamics and telling a beautiful coming of age tale. Still, despite its measured pace, there are a few really good scares in here and if readers are able to meet the book on its level will be rewarded greatly as it picks up in its final third and barrels toward an electrifying and gripping conclusion.
Ultimately, I am still haunted by the totality of the story, finding myself experiencing the memories and fantasies of Georgie's ghosts as if they were my own.
"There's no distinction between memories and stories. They're all real, all the same."
April 18, 2022
Really enjoyed this ghost story told from the perspective of an apathetic (and traumatized) teen who hasn't quite figured out her "gift" or herself. The ending is a wonderful twist on a coming of age story and there are many moments to be savoured here both tender and horrific.
November 15, 2022
The fascinating thing about Beulah is how Nogle manages to make ghosts unremarkable--and I mean that in the best way possible.
In another author's hands, 18-year-old Georgie's ability to see ghosts would be the centerpiece of everything, the keystone on which the rest of the story hinged. Instead, Georgie's struggle to simply exist, while being part of her family and taking care of her little sister, are the focus, and the ghosts and hauntings which torment her just as much as they keep her going are, in their own way, simply a part of her reality (and thus the reader's). There's no mistaking this for a coming-of-age story or a family drama, however, because the paranormal aspects of the story live in the cracks of each memory, in Georgie's every hesitation, and in every corner of Beulah that means such different things for the various characters in this book.
From the moment I fell into Nogle's novel, I was stolen into her world and her voice. It's hypnotizing, powerful, and the carrier of a reality that feels deeper than the story she's built. It is, simply put, pretty wonderful, and I hope you'll look it up. Just be ready for the darkness of it, and prepared to lose some days to its pull.
Absolutely recommended.
In another author's hands, 18-year-old Georgie's ability to see ghosts would be the centerpiece of everything, the keystone on which the rest of the story hinged. Instead, Georgie's struggle to simply exist, while being part of her family and taking care of her little sister, are the focus, and the ghosts and hauntings which torment her just as much as they keep her going are, in their own way, simply a part of her reality (and thus the reader's). There's no mistaking this for a coming-of-age story or a family drama, however, because the paranormal aspects of the story live in the cracks of each memory, in Georgie's every hesitation, and in every corner of Beulah that means such different things for the various characters in this book.
From the moment I fell into Nogle's novel, I was stolen into her world and her voice. It's hypnotizing, powerful, and the carrier of a reality that feels deeper than the story she's built. It is, simply put, pretty wonderful, and I hope you'll look it up. Just be ready for the darkness of it, and prepared to lose some days to its pull.
Absolutely recommended.
December 23, 2021
A sure-handed debut of considerable strength.
Nogle's depiction of rural life, its joys and constraints, are keenly wrought.
Beulah hits the perfect line between supernatural horror and the horror of the real melding the two together effortlessly until no line exists between the two.
Nogle's depiction of rural life, its joys and constraints, are keenly wrought.
Beulah hits the perfect line between supernatural horror and the horror of the real melding the two together effortlessly until no line exists between the two.
May 21, 2022
Georgie is an eighteen-year-old who sees ghosts, but that's just one layer of her special gift. It's not very long into reading BEULAH before you find out this is so much more than a ghost story.
BEULAH does what good fiction should do. It transports you. In this case, transportation is into the world of the dead, courtesy of Georgie. Her eyes, her ears, her experiences.
I'm a sucker for novels with afterlife-ish world building on the topic of ghosts. Nogle takes it to the next level in BEULAH because of the time and care she put into characterization of Georgie and her family. It really shines through. It's one thing to write a ghost story, and another thing to craft an afterlife world that is at the same time captivating and repelling. Captivating for its beauty in imagery, its emotional appeal, the way I could at time feel the longing of the ghosts. Repelling because of the elements of the world of ghosts that is terrifying. The reason the unique ending landed so well for me was because of the detailed characterization and world building at the start of the novel. Nogle's writing is, as always, gorgeous and compelling.
With BEULAH, you get both a tremendous ghost story and you get insights about family, loss, love, disappointment, and contentment. This is a truly creepy but beautifully quiet book. It's haunting in a way I haven't experienced from a novel in quite a long time, and I expect it'll stick with me. And maybe keep me wondering about the possibility of the ghosts of those I love who may be trying to haunt me.
Thank you to Cemetery Gates for this free copy of BEULAH. I'm so glad I won it in a Twitter contest! My opinions are my own.
BEULAH does what good fiction should do. It transports you. In this case, transportation is into the world of the dead, courtesy of Georgie. Her eyes, her ears, her experiences.
I'm a sucker for novels with afterlife-ish world building on the topic of ghosts. Nogle takes it to the next level in BEULAH because of the time and care she put into characterization of Georgie and her family. It really shines through. It's one thing to write a ghost story, and another thing to craft an afterlife world that is at the same time captivating and repelling. Captivating for its beauty in imagery, its emotional appeal, the way I could at time feel the longing of the ghosts. Repelling because of the elements of the world of ghosts that is terrifying. The reason the unique ending landed so well for me was because of the detailed characterization and world building at the start of the novel. Nogle's writing is, as always, gorgeous and compelling.
With BEULAH, you get both a tremendous ghost story and you get insights about family, loss, love, disappointment, and contentment. This is a truly creepy but beautifully quiet book. It's haunting in a way I haven't experienced from a novel in quite a long time, and I expect it'll stick with me. And maybe keep me wondering about the possibility of the ghosts of those I love who may be trying to haunt me.
Thank you to Cemetery Gates for this free copy of BEULAH. I'm so glad I won it in a Twitter contest! My opinions are my own.
May 31, 2022
I love the premise, I love the writing, and I love the characters. Christi Nogle's writing style is consistently gorgeous and her prose just flows. I recommend this to everyone who's ever felt like the odd one out, the outcasts, the strange kids, the ones who see beyond what's right in front of them.
November 6, 2023
Okay, I think I get it.
And the longer I sit with it, the more I like it.
Georgie, the protagonist of Beulah, grows on you. The context is this: She moves to the town of Beulah, which is situated near a canyon somewhere in the U.S., with her two sisters (Tommy and Stevie) and their mother. Their mother's childhood best friend Ellen situates them in an old, dilapidated schoolhouse that they'll get to live in for the time being as long as they help flip it so it can sell as a regular house. Tommy, Stevie, and their mom take on the majority of the renovation, though, leaving Georgie to nap most of her non-school days away.
The first half of this novel mostly concerns Georgie going through the motions of living in this new (haunted) space while simultaneously recalling her past experiences with ghosts, which are sometimes fantasized/romanticized versions of her actual memories. This should have been a clue about her mental state, but I didn't pay close enough attention to notice. Instead, I actually found myself having to slog through a lot of the first half of this novel because Georgie seemed to want to talk about all of the most mundane details she could think of about every aspect of her life.
"Where do you go?"
However, the further I read, the clearer it became that Georgie's dullness was a defense mechanism. If she were a knife, the dullness I read was not of her blade, but of her sheath. She not only has gone through personal trauma but also has been encouraged most of her teenage life to be anyone other than who she is: a gifted psychic who can see ghosts just as well as she can see the living.
The last third of this novel is still the strongest, in my opinion. The conflict becomes clearer, Georgie starts focusing more on her own wants and on remembering her memories in better faith, and the spooks get spooky.
" . . . But every time I stop doing what I'm supposedly supposed to do, I'm getting stronger and seeing more. And sometimes it's so beautiful."
I recommend this novel to the more patient horror reader. If you expect gore and violence in anything labeled horror, this probably won't be the book for you. I still encourage you to try, though. The ending is worth it.
For fans of: Hereditary (2018), The VVitch (2015), We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, Come Closer by Sara Gran, Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, The Tribe by Bari Wood, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
And the longer I sit with it, the more I like it.
Georgie, the protagonist of Beulah, grows on you. The context is this: She moves to the town of Beulah, which is situated near a canyon somewhere in the U.S., with her two sisters (Tommy and Stevie) and their mother. Their mother's childhood best friend Ellen situates them in an old, dilapidated schoolhouse that they'll get to live in for the time being as long as they help flip it so it can sell as a regular house. Tommy, Stevie, and their mom take on the majority of the renovation, though, leaving Georgie to nap most of her non-school days away.
The first half of this novel mostly concerns Georgie going through the motions of living in this new (haunted) space while simultaneously recalling her past experiences with ghosts, which are sometimes fantasized/romanticized versions of her actual memories. This should have been a clue about her mental state, but I didn't pay close enough attention to notice. Instead, I actually found myself having to slog through a lot of the first half of this novel because Georgie seemed to want to talk about all of the most mundane details she could think of about every aspect of her life.
"Where do you go?"
However, the further I read, the clearer it became that Georgie's dullness was a defense mechanism. If she were a knife, the dullness I read was not of her blade, but of her sheath. She not only has gone through personal trauma but also has been encouraged most of her teenage life to be anyone other than who she is: a gifted psychic who can see ghosts just as well as she can see the living.
The last third of this novel is still the strongest, in my opinion. The conflict becomes clearer, Georgie starts focusing more on her own wants and on remembering her memories in better faith, and the spooks get spooky.
" . . . But every time I stop doing what I'm supposedly supposed to do, I'm getting stronger and seeing more. And sometimes it's so beautiful."
I recommend this novel to the more patient horror reader. If you expect gore and violence in anything labeled horror, this probably won't be the book for you. I still encourage you to try, though. The ending is worth it.
For fans of: Hereditary (2018), The VVitch (2015), We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, Come Closer by Sara Gran, Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, The Tribe by Bari Wood, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
April 24, 2023
Georgie can see ghosts. She knows she ought not to pay attention to them, because they are dangerous if you let them get too close, but they ease some of her loneliness. Moving back to her mother's home town in Iowa, Georgie tries to work out what she wants to do with life and how to best serve her family. But with her low energy, and the way her family struggles with her condition, and her general unmoored nature makes that difficult.
Beulah is a really interesting mix of slice of life and paranormal. I think this is what people class as "cosy horror". Georgie and her family were so detailed and felt so real throughout, with their little tics and well-worn arguments, and the ways that they show love to each other. It's a fantastic portrait of a family. I was also really compelled by how Nogle manages to make Georgie so compelling, despite her lack of goal and purpose. She drifts through life, and I wanted to see where she was going to drift next!
The ending was emotional--inevitable, but wrenching and unexpected at first. The build-up is excellently done, with the emotional weight of Georgie finally able to make choices for herself, even if those choices have large-scale consequences and sacrifice a lot of herself.
Classism is also a big theme that runs throughout, and I enjoyed the interplay of Georgie's family and that of Ellen's, Georgie's mother's best friend. Even in the quiet, more subtle moments, it's clear the ways they approach life are radically different and in Ellen's expectations of them. Beulah too is beautifully drawn, especially the way that Georgie and her mother's memories run over each other at points.
Georgie's relationships with her sisters, Stevie and Tommy, was one of my favourite parts. They are both complicated in their own way, but her closeness to them both and all of their attempts to find ways to understand each other was fantastic.
And through it all, we interweave ghost stories and hauntings and the creeping dread of the basement.
Beulah is a really exciting debut novel. I really look forward to more of Nogle's work.
Beulah is a really interesting mix of slice of life and paranormal. I think this is what people class as "cosy horror". Georgie and her family were so detailed and felt so real throughout, with their little tics and well-worn arguments, and the ways that they show love to each other. It's a fantastic portrait of a family. I was also really compelled by how Nogle manages to make Georgie so compelling, despite her lack of goal and purpose. She drifts through life, and I wanted to see where she was going to drift next!
The ending was emotional--inevitable, but wrenching and unexpected at first. The build-up is excellently done, with the emotional weight of Georgie finally able to make choices for herself, even if those choices have large-scale consequences and sacrifice a lot of herself.
Classism is also a big theme that runs throughout, and I enjoyed the interplay of Georgie's family and that of Ellen's, Georgie's mother's best friend. Even in the quiet, more subtle moments, it's clear the ways they approach life are radically different and in Ellen's expectations of them. Beulah too is beautifully drawn, especially the way that Georgie and her mother's memories run over each other at points.
Georgie's relationships with her sisters, Stevie and Tommy, was one of my favourite parts. They are both complicated in their own way, but her closeness to them both and all of their attempts to find ways to understand each other was fantastic.
And through it all, we interweave ghost stories and hauntings and the creeping dread of the basement.
Beulah is a really exciting debut novel. I really look forward to more of Nogle's work.
May 5, 2022
Beulah handles its paranormal elements as I've never seen before. They're just there, a fairly normal part of the protagonist's life, and I found that refreshing. I think it's a character-driven story at heart, and I found myself turning pages to find out how the everyday dramas would resolve more than anything. The writing is simple, honest, and filled with little truths applicable to many of our lives. I felt I was in good hands throughout it all. Overall, an excellent modern story in a genre that has been well and truly spreading its leathery black wings this past few years. Can't wait to read more of your work, Christi!
August 1, 2022
Character-driven and heavy with atmosphere, Beulah pulls the reader into a slow-burning ghost story as surreal as a dream, but rife with brutal moments of harsh reality. Gothic foreboding colours every page of this novel. Be warned though, don’t go into the book expecting standard jump scares and ghouls. The horror in Beulah is as subdued and as insidious as the ghosts that haunt Georgie herself.
It’s hard not to fall into the tale of Georgie, to be swept away by her romanticism, her despair, her desire to be something more, to find her own place in the world. Written in first person, Georgie’s voice and personality are realistic, clear, tragic. Her struggles to find familial approval, to protect her siblings, to find a sense of normalcy while also trying to embrace her gift is a coming-of-age journey that mirrors the struggles so many people go through every day.
I also really enjoyed Christi’s take on the paranormal and of ghosts. It wasn’t anything I ever expected, especially how the novel ends. I wasn’t prepared for how breathless it left me. This is definitely one novel I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
It’s hard not to fall into the tale of Georgie, to be swept away by her romanticism, her despair, her desire to be something more, to find her own place in the world. Written in first person, Georgie’s voice and personality are realistic, clear, tragic. Her struggles to find familial approval, to protect her siblings, to find a sense of normalcy while also trying to embrace her gift is a coming-of-age journey that mirrors the struggles so many people go through every day.
I also really enjoyed Christi’s take on the paranormal and of ghosts. It wasn’t anything I ever expected, especially how the novel ends. I wasn’t prepared for how breathless it left me. This is definitely one novel I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
May 3, 2022
A unique story of Georgie, stuck in the land of teenage-dom, where she isn't sure where she fits or who she is, or who she should be. Where everyone has an opinion of what you should do and who you should be.
And she sees ghosts.
And she discovers the only one holding her back is herself.
A quiet, creepy tale. With family and friends and the looming darkness that life can be. Always go back to visit. Always.
And she sees ghosts.
And she discovers the only one holding her back is herself.
A quiet, creepy tale. With family and friends and the looming darkness that life can be. Always go back to visit. Always.
May 7, 2022
I'm a huge fan of quietly emotional, slice-of-life horror and this book fits perfectly into that niche. When Georgie moves to the small town of Beulah with her mother and sisters, her gift (or curse) of seeing ghosts comes into full force leading to unintended consequences. The setting of the old schoolhouse they are charged with renovating adds the perfect spooky touch, and I found Georgie's character, an aimless and depressed teenager who feels detached from both life and the living, very relatable. There is a lot of foreshadowing and hints dropped throughout the story, some of which I felt paid off and some of which didn't for me. However, this is one of those books where what happens is less important than the overall mood of the piece. There were some editing issues, and I think the novel might have been even more effective if it had been tightened up a bit in length, but still, this is a very rewarding read for lovers of a thoughtful take on ghost tales and coming-of-age stories.
July 6, 2022
In Beulah, Christi Nogle builds a slow creeping dread that crescendos masterfully and had me at the edge of my seat for the last half of the book.
Georgie is a super senior with a gift - she can see the dead - but there are risks in communing with them, and Georgie has learned this the hard way. She and her family move to Beulah for a fresh start and Georgie aims to do better, but struggles with the things many teenagers face: depression, grief, romance, sibling rivalries, tension with her mom. But when Georgie's youngest sister, Stevie, shows signs of having the same gift, teaching and protecting Stevie threatens to undo all of her work to put her past behind her.
The relationships in Beulah are masterfully wrought, the dread and loneliness of such a power are beautifully drawn, and the end is full of emotional resonance. This one will hit you in the feels.
Georgie is a super senior with a gift - she can see the dead - but there are risks in communing with them, and Georgie has learned this the hard way. She and her family move to Beulah for a fresh start and Georgie aims to do better, but struggles with the things many teenagers face: depression, grief, romance, sibling rivalries, tension with her mom. But when Georgie's youngest sister, Stevie, shows signs of having the same gift, teaching and protecting Stevie threatens to undo all of her work to put her past behind her.
The relationships in Beulah are masterfully wrought, the dread and loneliness of such a power are beautifully drawn, and the end is full of emotional resonance. This one will hit you in the feels.
March 14, 2022
“Beulah” is unlike any ghost story I’ve ever read. A slow burn that never truly ignites but hypnotizes and enthralls. The character work here is just remarkable. A powerful story about a family struggling with loss and upheaval. Trying to cope with the ghosts that haunt them literally and figuratively. Struggling with the familial assaults of The things unsaid, the little crimes we commit against one another, the resistance in admitting how much we are alike. The teenage labyrinth of belonging and discovery of one’s self. The terror of not being able to be the person everyone wants or needs you to be. Generational traumas and failures. There’s so many layers that I’m sure I missed a lot. I can’t really describe it, but I was captivated, moved, haunted and impressed.
April 18, 2022
A wonderfully moving novel covering the weirdness and darkness in life, death, and the moments in-between. This book is as much about the ghosts of choices made or not made as it is about the spirits of the deceased.
Nogle is a top-notch weird/dark fiction author who doesn’t shy away from the unexpected and then follows through in a way that makes these strange choices feel as natural as possible. I was genuinely surprised at several moments in the book.
Nogle is a top-notch weird/dark fiction author who doesn’t shy away from the unexpected and then follows through in a way that makes these strange choices feel as natural as possible. I was genuinely surprised at several moments in the book.
February 14, 2022
Beulah is amazing. A subtle creepy coming of age story that explores sisterhood, moving to a new town, and ghosts, what more could you want? Christi Nogle's prose is haunting and beautiful as she builds this world. This book hit me hard a number of times with its themes of siblings and the challenges that brings. It's a long one, but never really felt that way because of how engrossing it is.
May 2, 2022
Beulah is an amazing book, full of the pain and exceptionalism from a broken, dysfunctional family. The truth of the book is exceptional and insightful, and the sacrifices of the main character are surprisingly what keeps the family going. Read this book.
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