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The Apple-Tree Throne
It is the turn of the century in an England that never was. Bright new aqua-plants are generating electricity for the streetlights; news can be easily had on the radio-viz; and in Gundisalvus' Land, the war is over and the soldiers are beginning to trickle home. Amongst these is Lt. Benjamin Braddock, survivor of the massacre that ended the war, and begrudgingly ready to return to a world that, well, doesn't seem to need him any more than it did in peacetime. His friends have homes and families to return to, while he's got nothing but his discharge papers and a couple of unwanted medals. Oh, and one new thing: the furious ghost of his commanding officer.
Fortunately, since the officer's family is so vehemently adamant that Braddock join their rich and carefree fold, he doesn't have much time to fret about being haunted. But the secrets of the war are about to catch up to them all.
"A steaming heap of self-indulgent drivel" - the author
Fortunately, since the officer's family is so vehemently adamant that Braddock join their rich and carefree fold, he doesn't have much time to fret about being haunted. But the secrets of the war are about to catch up to them all.
"A steaming heap of self-indulgent drivel" - the author
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First published August 14, 2018
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About the author
Premee Mohamed
80 books732 followersPremee Mohamed is a Nebula award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod and the author of the 'Beneath the Rising' series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website at www.premeemohamed.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
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November 20, 2018This is really fantastic. A short set in an alt-Edwardianish Britain, now a republic, recovering from a devastating war. Vaguely steampunky without being annoying. Ben has returned from the war wounded in mind and body after his charming, handsome, entitled, privileged commanding officer got his division wiped out by arrogant incompetence. Ben is the only one to speak at the disgraced man's funeral, and is taken in by his bereaved family. He is also haunted by his CO's ghost. Subsequent events play out beautifully, with the story very much about human kindness and cruelty and neither of them lying where you might expect. There are a couple of casual slurs used but keep with it, this author is working mindfully.
Really well written, elegantly paced and constructed, a perfect example of the novella form. I'm thrilled this author has a full length book coming: can't wait.
Really well written, elegantly paced and constructed, a perfect example of the novella form. I'm thrilled this author has a full length book coming: can't wait.
January 26, 2019
An elegiac, atmospheric tale of ghosts, war, hauntings, and what survival means. Well recommended.
July 7, 2020
This is a delicate and gentle story about trauma and loss and carrying on afterward. It’s set in an alternate history England, in a time that feels like the Edwardian period, but with many differences — the monarchy has long been abolished, and there’s strange technologies everywhere. Oh, and there’s ghosts. Or at least one ghost, who is haunting the main character, a man recently returned from the war.
This story is beautiful, subtle, and wise, and I don’t want to say too much about it, because honestly, just read it.
(And here’s a thing that made me laugh when I read the afterword: this is songfic!)
This story is beautiful, subtle, and wise, and I don’t want to say too much about it, because honestly, just read it.
(And here’s a thing that made me laugh when I read the afterword: this is songfic!)
August 12, 2020
Beautiful misty writing and plot. It takes some time to piece together what happened and when: a process that mirrors the increasing substance of Wickersley's ghost, its relationship to Benjamin, and Benjamin's own painfully slow re-engagement with life.
I won't say I'm completely certain about what happens at the end, but since the whole book is suffused with a melancholy mistiness, an undefined ending is just part of that. There's a sense of "something" more definite (a relationship, a life) coming out of the mists but, like the ghost, it's evanescent, incorporeal.
I liked this a lot.
I won't say I'm completely certain about what happens at the end, but since the whole book is suffused with a melancholy mistiness, an undefined ending is just part of that. There's a sense of "something" more definite (a relationship, a life) coming out of the mists but, like the ghost, it's evanescent, incorporeal.
I liked this a lot.
December 11, 2018
This review should contain some enthusiastic commentary on the prose of this novella, particularly using the words 'lush', 'redolent' and 'evocative' but I have a sinus infection and this is day 4 of my headache and I can't word good. But I know what good words look like and these are some of the most moving you will find; a very enticing alt-fin-de-siècle republican Britain, a returned soldier and a fallen one, interchangeable bodies in a disintegrating class system... and there were roses. It was very, very good.
January 10, 2019
In an alternate (roughly Edwardian era?) England, a young solder returns from war wounded and haunted. Literally haunted, by the ghost of his military commander. Lieutenant Benjamin Braddock is one of the few survivors of his regiment, who were nearly all massacred due to a fatal error by his commander, Theodore Wickersley. Wickersley’s memory is now disgraced, while Braddock grieves and recuperates. Without family in the world, Braddock gives in when Wickersley’s family takes him in as a kind of substitute son. But their real son, although dead, is not pleased, and nightly comes to Braddock’s window. . .
This a strange, rich, gorgeously written story. It’s not quite a horror story and it’s not quite steam-punk, despite intriguing glimpses of an alternate steampunk technology. It’s a quiet story that slips between genres. It is, most of all, a story of grief and trauma, of trying to live in a world which no longer fits. The haunted Braddock is an immediately winning character, a narrator with a wonderfully wry, intelligent, and compelling voice. Here is an example of his wry thoughts upon meeting Wickersley’s former fiancé:
“I am impressed by her hair, and spend an injudicious amount of time staring at it, for ‘chestnut tresses’ are referenced often and carelessly in pulp novels, but I have handled my fair share of conkers and the precise colours of sepia and vermillion that must be mixed to produce a true chestnut hair outside of a literary setting is surpassingly rare.”
And here’s an example of Braddock’s pain, heartbreakingly rendered in the same elegant diction. A friend has just asked the soldier how his wounded leg is.
“I want to tell him how when it is rainy or foreboding I wake in the middle of the night muffling screams into my pillows, how the pain comes in low like a wave and then washes over me, as if my entire body is lifted by it. . . I want to tell him I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, and that the X-pictures show a leg as perfectly repaired and sturdy as this legendary roast that Victoria will cook for us. . . I want to tell him there is no rhyme or reason for this pain, and yet it is always with me, sometimes asleep, sometimes awake, like a large dangerous animal I have been forced to host in my rooms.
Instead, I say, “Oh, still settling. Some days are better than others.”
There’s so much in the passage above--Ben Braddock’s quiet suffering, his stoicism, his desire not to impose upon other people. He’s an incredibly easy character to love—witty, smart, self-effacing and thoroughly decent. But he also has friends that I fell in love with because they loved him, too. The Apple-Tree Throne is suffused with generosity and compassion; there are portrays of arrogance, entitlement, and foolishness, but even those characters are treated by the author with compassion. Every character is seen as human. Amidst pain, there is the glow of love and support. And the ending contains a twist which is deeply moving and beautiful, and which rings utterly true. This is a wonderfully immersive read, elegant and witty as well as moving.
This a strange, rich, gorgeously written story. It’s not quite a horror story and it’s not quite steam-punk, despite intriguing glimpses of an alternate steampunk technology. It’s a quiet story that slips between genres. It is, most of all, a story of grief and trauma, of trying to live in a world which no longer fits. The haunted Braddock is an immediately winning character, a narrator with a wonderfully wry, intelligent, and compelling voice. Here is an example of his wry thoughts upon meeting Wickersley’s former fiancé:
“I am impressed by her hair, and spend an injudicious amount of time staring at it, for ‘chestnut tresses’ are referenced often and carelessly in pulp novels, but I have handled my fair share of conkers and the precise colours of sepia and vermillion that must be mixed to produce a true chestnut hair outside of a literary setting is surpassingly rare.”
And here’s an example of Braddock’s pain, heartbreakingly rendered in the same elegant diction. A friend has just asked the soldier how his wounded leg is.
“I want to tell him how when it is rainy or foreboding I wake in the middle of the night muffling screams into my pillows, how the pain comes in low like a wave and then washes over me, as if my entire body is lifted by it. . . I want to tell him I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, and that the X-pictures show a leg as perfectly repaired and sturdy as this legendary roast that Victoria will cook for us. . . I want to tell him there is no rhyme or reason for this pain, and yet it is always with me, sometimes asleep, sometimes awake, like a large dangerous animal I have been forced to host in my rooms.
Instead, I say, “Oh, still settling. Some days are better than others.”
There’s so much in the passage above--Ben Braddock’s quiet suffering, his stoicism, his desire not to impose upon other people. He’s an incredibly easy character to love—witty, smart, self-effacing and thoroughly decent. But he also has friends that I fell in love with because they loved him, too. The Apple-Tree Throne is suffused with generosity and compassion; there are portrays of arrogance, entitlement, and foolishness, but even those characters are treated by the author with compassion. Every character is seen as human. Amidst pain, there is the glow of love and support. And the ending contains a twist which is deeply moving and beautiful, and which rings utterly true. This is a wonderfully immersive read, elegant and witty as well as moving.
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January 23, 2021For me, this was a bewildering story. I enjoyed aspects of it intensely. The writing was superb and the world was so, so richly imagined. I loved being in the protagonist's head for his memories, and I loved his interactions with his friends.
But I spent a lot of time struggling to understand things. It was as if I were reading something translated from a language and culture whose allusions were unfamiliar to me. I spent a lot of time thinking, "So does this mean--? Does this indicate--?"
As I think it over, and in the light of the final page, which really spells things out, I can see how the central relationship of the story develops over the the course of the story, and how what's revealed at the end is supported earlier on. Personally, I prefer more signs of friendliness/love and more reasons for friendship and love than I feel I got here, but I think what's shown is in keeping with a certain sort of relationship and in *portrayals* of a certain sort of relationship.
I really loved the richness of detail, though, whether it was the soldiers' humor, or the awful vividness of the commanding officer's death, or the description of attempts to fish, during childhood. And I laughed and laughed at the acronym for the "Great Republic of Britannia" and the soldiers' names for themselves.
In terms of topic, I'd recommend this for people who like understated love stories (v-e-r-y understated, and with a strong pinch of anger/resentment), alternative histories, World War I stories, battered-veteran stories, and steampunk. In terms of writing, if you enjoy an old-fashioned storytelling voice (which I do) and rich detail, you'll enjoy this. Conversely, if you *don't* like tales of the travails of war or if you like your stories fast paced, this may be more of a challenge.
But I spent a lot of time struggling to understand things. It was as if I were reading something translated from a language and culture whose allusions were unfamiliar to me. I spent a lot of time thinking, "So does this mean--? Does this indicate--?"
As I think it over, and in the light of the final page, which really spells things out, I can see how the central relationship of the story develops over the the course of the story, and how what's revealed at the end is supported earlier on. Personally, I prefer more signs of friendliness/love and more reasons for friendship and love than I feel I got here, but I think what's shown is in keeping with a certain sort of relationship and in *portrayals* of a certain sort of relationship.
I really loved the richness of detail, though, whether it was the soldiers' humor, or the awful vividness of the commanding officer's death, or the description of attempts to fish, during childhood. And I laughed and laughed at the acronym for the "Great Republic of Britannia" and the soldiers' names for themselves.
In terms of topic, I'd recommend this for people who like understated love stories (v-e-r-y understated, and with a strong pinch of anger/resentment), alternative histories, World War I stories, battered-veteran stories, and steampunk. In terms of writing, if you enjoy an old-fashioned storytelling voice (which I do) and rich detail, you'll enjoy this. Conversely, if you *don't* like tales of the travails of war or if you like your stories fast paced, this may be more of a challenge.
August 27, 2018
I didn't realize when I bought this book that the experience of coming home from war was so central to the plot and the aesthetic. I usually avoid this kind of book, especially when I know that it wasn't written by a veteran of a 21st century war, because as a veteran myself I find that often people who haven't had this kind of experience misunderstand it, profoundly.
Mohamed doesn't quite capture the sense of betrayal I've felt, or the depth of incompetence I encountered in the military, or the way incompetence can be a betrayal--there's a kind of absurdity that she doesn't capture. But she gets pretty close, about as close as you could expect a civilian to get. And the other elements in the story were soft and charming and human, and that made up for the slight falter in this respect. On the first page I was wary, but I found I enjoyed this story a lot.
Plus, it's a perfect cozy bath read: you can read it beginning to end, and only need to refill the hot water once.
Mohamed doesn't quite capture the sense of betrayal I've felt, or the depth of incompetence I encountered in the military, or the way incompetence can be a betrayal--there's a kind of absurdity that she doesn't capture. But she gets pretty close, about as close as you could expect a civilian to get. And the other elements in the story were soft and charming and human, and that made up for the slight falter in this respect. On the first page I was wary, but I found I enjoyed this story a lot.
Plus, it's a perfect cozy bath read: you can read it beginning to end, and only need to refill the hot water once.
February 19, 2021
So, so good. Tightly written, full of melancholy, and just enough interesting and subtle detail to make this alternate, slightly steampunk, Edwardian England believable.
Main character Ben, returned from war, is in pain from grave injuries, and unable to eat or sleep properly. He’s visited nightly by his dead Commanding Officer.
Ben struggles to reconcile his brutal memories of fighting, particularly of a disastrous last action by his CO, and of watching his CO’s murder at the hands of the enemy. Ben also feels detached from the people around him, who don’t understand the costs of the war on the soldiers and their bodies and minds.
The text is economical but not lacking in emotion. Mohamed wonderfully evokes Ben’s frustration and contained fury, and his somewhat dry, slightly sarcastic delivery when dealing with others, and the oppression Ben feels in his CO’s family’s home, verses the lightness of his interactions with his best friend.
This was book was a lovely surprise.
Main character Ben, returned from war, is in pain from grave injuries, and unable to eat or sleep properly. He’s visited nightly by his dead Commanding Officer.
Ben struggles to reconcile his brutal memories of fighting, particularly of a disastrous last action by his CO, and of watching his CO’s murder at the hands of the enemy. Ben also feels detached from the people around him, who don’t understand the costs of the war on the soldiers and their bodies and minds.
The text is economical but not lacking in emotion. Mohamed wonderfully evokes Ben’s frustration and contained fury, and his somewhat dry, slightly sarcastic delivery when dealing with others, and the oppression Ben feels in his CO’s family’s home, verses the lightness of his interactions with his best friend.
This was book was a lovely surprise.
October 28, 2018
This is a novella, a strange little ghost story set in an alternate post-war, which I don't want to call "steampunk" because it doesn't have that genre's wilful obtuseness about the brutality of empire. It's a similar sideways history, full of steam-powered trams and algae-driven electricity, presented as the background to the ghost story. Which is itself something of a metaphor for a story about trauma, and living and growing with trauma. If I had a criticism of this book, in fact, it's that it tries to do a little too much in a small space. But it's a minor criticism: it's original and interesting, and I'd like to see more like it.
August 15, 2018
I can't ride horses. I mean, I can, but it's not comfortable. I see other people do it with grace and joy. That's how it felt to read this story of a war-stung man coming to grips with the past and his future. It felt like being allowed to ride a horse as if I were someone who truly knows how.
Premee Mohamed's prose is perfectly balanced. Her metaphors are earned. Nothing is wasted; every movement pulls you beautifully one step closer to emotional connection. I cried three times, the magic number. When I finished this book, I needed a hug. I needed to give one and get one.
Let's be honest. I love literary writing. I fawn over authors who can slice a sentence to the bone, and then dress it with exactly the right salt or sugar to enhance the marrow. Plot needn't matter when you can write like Mohamed, but the plot here is tense, intriguing, and paced for a one-sitting read.
Mohamed has recently signed a book deal, and I can't wait to pre-order!
Premee Mohamed's prose is perfectly balanced. Her metaphors are earned. Nothing is wasted; every movement pulls you beautifully one step closer to emotional connection. I cried three times, the magic number. When I finished this book, I needed a hug. I needed to give one and get one.
Let's be honest. I love literary writing. I fawn over authors who can slice a sentence to the bone, and then dress it with exactly the right salt or sugar to enhance the marrow. Plot needn't matter when you can write like Mohamed, but the plot here is tense, intriguing, and paced for a one-sitting read.
Mohamed has recently signed a book deal, and I can't wait to pre-order!
December 10, 2023
This is a strange, lovely short piece (somewhere around the novelette/ novella line, I'm guessing) about a veteran coming home. He's taken in by the family of his dead commanding officer, and the complexities of that relationship (an odd military-worship combined with disinterest in him as a person) are very well-drawn. I'm also a fan of this alternate England, which nails a few-universes-over style that I'd like to see again. RTC.
April 25, 2020
This novella is beautiful, both the prose itself and the story. I didn't know much about it at all, which made it a quick read, because I wanted to know what was happening. But I plan to reread it soon. I think I'll better appreciate it when I'm no longer curious about the plot's secrets. I look forward to reading more by this author.
September 18, 2018
Beautiful, atmospheric, brimming with emotion. A perfect Autumn ghost story, and one I really hope to see on the Hugo ballot next year.
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May 3, 2021This short ghost story probably deserves a more objective review, but I got my 2nd vaccination, and all I can summon are feverish thoughts.
It began as a character returned to their country, no longer belonging to that old life.
The story was too familiar, and I had to stop. Reverse culture shock hit me, hard, like a punch. Looming like a wall, but transparent as a pane of glass, isolating. I had no desire to coexist in that place of deadened nerves and depression.
I later picked it up again, and the character resolved into a soldier returned from war, about whom I could be blissfully uninterested.
I'm reminded of the stories I was forced to read in high school. Authors of the Lost Generation. I had no interest or sympathy for disaffected wealthy white men then, and I still don't.
But such stories were never meant for teenagers. If you're going to read them at all, you need time to stagnate and ferment and develop some sour notes first, and allow those to mellow with age.
I suppose you either don't relate at all, or you relate too much so that it's unbearable. I'm not sure for whom such stories are written. The author themselves, perhaps.
For what it's worth, I'm glad for a happy ending of sorts. From being surrounded by the oppressively unchanging, well-meaning ignorant, to finding a kind of peace with someone who understands.
It began as a character returned to their country, no longer belonging to that old life.
The story was too familiar, and I had to stop. Reverse culture shock hit me, hard, like a punch. Looming like a wall, but transparent as a pane of glass, isolating. I had no desire to coexist in that place of deadened nerves and depression.
I later picked it up again, and the character resolved into a soldier returned from war, about whom I could be blissfully uninterested.
I'm reminded of the stories I was forced to read in high school. Authors of the Lost Generation. I had no interest or sympathy for disaffected wealthy white men then, and I still don't.
But such stories were never meant for teenagers. If you're going to read them at all, you need time to stagnate and ferment and develop some sour notes first, and allow those to mellow with age.
I suppose you either don't relate at all, or you relate too much so that it's unbearable. I'm not sure for whom such stories are written. The author themselves, perhaps.
For what it's worth, I'm glad for a happy ending of sorts. From being surrounded by the oppressively unchanging, well-meaning ignorant, to finding a kind of peace with someone who understands.
November 2, 2021
This is a remarkable novella, a perfectly judged and weighted thing to begin a month of reading, at the interstice of All Hallows' and Divali, no less.
Uncanny, judiciously wrought, utterly credible in a step for step with its alt-Britannia envisioning, and above all, a heartbreaking account of the wages of war. I'd say I wished I'd read Premee Mohammed sooner, but this only means I now have an explorer's path ahead.
Uncanny, judiciously wrought, utterly credible in a step for step with its alt-Britannia envisioning, and above all, a heartbreaking account of the wages of war. I'd say I wished I'd read Premee Mohammed sooner, but this only means I now have an explorer's path ahead.
March 14, 2019
An excellent novella that felt much longer in terms of amount conveyed than page count would imply. The feels in this are off the charts. I’m so thankful for the ending, as I’d worried about the creeper elements.
Marvellous commentary on the war machine and the ways in which it’s fed and perpetuated.
Oh, Ben. <3
Marvellous commentary on the war machine and the ways in which it’s fed and perpetuated.
Oh, Ben. <3
November 29, 2019
The description may lead you to expect either a horror story or a mystery, but this is neither of those things really. The plot, such as it is, is secondary to the exploration of social dislocation, identity, and change - all of which are handled deftly but gently. Perfect if you're in the mood for a short character study.
February 16, 2019
A Gorgeous Gothic "Romance" of sorts
The author flawlessly sets the mood in an instant for a complex tale that handles depression, PTSD, chronic pain, survivor's guilt and mourning beautifully. I highly recommend it for fans of the classic Gothic Novel.
The author flawlessly sets the mood in an instant for a complex tale that handles depression, PTSD, chronic pain, survivor's guilt and mourning beautifully. I highly recommend it for fans of the classic Gothic Novel.
November 24, 2018
So beautiful.
March 25, 2020
I picked this up from a twitter rec because I needed a book with a food in the title for my #armedwithabingo card. I ended up reading it in a single sitting, and loving it.
The Apple-Tree Throne felt to me like a very gothic-historical-fantasy kind of novella. Lt. Benjamin Braddock survived the war, and more than that the massacre that ended the war. His friends went home to their families, their loved ones, but he has nothing. Nobody. He's got discharge papers and nowhere to go. And he's got the ghost of his commanding officer too, though he doesn't much want him. When the officer's family drag Benjamin into his life, his family, his house and even entangle him with his fiancee, how is Ben supposed to find his own place?
The Apple-Tree Throne is a quick read and really enjoyable. The world was a little different from ours, but parts of it were much the same. It felt like a parallel, and it was interesting to discover where it parted. And, considering that there was a lot of loss and grief in the story, and a huge focus on how hard it can be to find where you fit when you don't feel like you belong anywhere, the story was damn funny. I highlighted a dozen quotes when I was reading it because it gave me genuine moments of laughing out loud amongst the thoughtful moments.
This is definitely worth a pick up.
The Apple-Tree Throne felt to me like a very gothic-historical-fantasy kind of novella. Lt. Benjamin Braddock survived the war, and more than that the massacre that ended the war. His friends went home to their families, their loved ones, but he has nothing. Nobody. He's got discharge papers and nowhere to go. And he's got the ghost of his commanding officer too, though he doesn't much want him. When the officer's family drag Benjamin into his life, his family, his house and even entangle him with his fiancee, how is Ben supposed to find his own place?
The Apple-Tree Throne is a quick read and really enjoyable. The world was a little different from ours, but parts of it were much the same. It felt like a parallel, and it was interesting to discover where it parted. And, considering that there was a lot of loss and grief in the story, and a huge focus on how hard it can be to find where you fit when you don't feel like you belong anywhere, the story was damn funny. I highlighted a dozen quotes when I was reading it because it gave me genuine moments of laughing out loud amongst the thoughtful moments.
This is definitely worth a pick up.
September 18, 2019
A melancholy, subtle ghost story that deals with a soldier's post-war trauma: perfect timing, reading this in autumn. The world nestled within this short novella was also really intriguing, and I need to find out if Premee Mohamed has written more stories in this setting.
I think I should reread this in a single sitting sometime, though; my reading was divided into a few sessions because of work and exhaustion, and I do think this novella would've had even more of an impact if read all in one go.
I think I should reread this in a single sitting sometime, though; my reading was divided into a few sessions because of work and exhaustion, and I do think this novella would've had even more of an impact if read all in one go.
May 24, 2024
This short novella packs quite a punch, but in a quiet way. In all of the reviews I looked at, it seems like everyone who reads it takes something different from it. What stuck out to me was the spot-on feeling of being in the military and the near instant bonds you get from it, the poverty to military pipeline, and the terribleness of survivor's guilt. The ghost story felt almost secondary to me. The way this deals with pain, both physical and emotional, and the trauma of being at war is really wonderful. Very worth a read.
October 23, 2021
Ooh! spooky ghosts. If you are looking for a Halloween treat, look no further. This alternate, fantastical history follows a veteran coming home from what may have been World War I and his struggles with the ghost of his commanding officer. It addresses PTSD, trying to integrate back into civilian life, and attempting to live up to society’s expectations over a backdrop of spectral hauntings and a really solid friend support system (this cannot be overstated). Read this book for ghosts, surprise endings, and wonderful friends.
April 19, 2022
A disturbing novella about a soldier coming home from wars. He is suffering from PTSD. He is tormented by memories. He can't find his peace even after the war ends.
We forgot both [pity and mercy], in war. How true this quote is.
Overall, a dark and powerful story. But its grimness affected me in the way the author probably didn't intend. It turned me away. I will not be reading any of her other stories. I don't want to be plunged into her darkness once more.
We forgot both [pity and mercy], in war. How true this quote is.
Overall, a dark and powerful story. But its grimness affected me in the way the author probably didn't intend. It turned me away. I will not be reading any of her other stories. I don't want to be plunged into her darkness once more.
February 15, 2021
Oh-ho-ho that ending!
This story takes place in alternate history European wartime, something like WWI but not, and centers on a veteran returned home wounded inside.
The ghost of his commander complicates everything. Or so Ben thinks at first.
Highly recommended.
This story takes place in alternate history European wartime, something like WWI but not, and centers on a veteran returned home wounded inside.
The ghost of his commander complicates everything. Or so Ben thinks at first.
Highly recommended.
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November 14, 2021Just what I want from a ghost story: subtlety, atmospheric creepiness, and churning through the ideas of memory and survival.
February 22, 2023
A beautiful non horror ghost story of war, guilt, grief and hope that I strongly recommend.
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
June 29, 2023
Interesting
Easy quick read. Well written but I don't think I understood it. I don't think I will re read it.
Easy quick read. Well written but I don't think I understood it. I don't think I will re read it.
January 6, 2024
Do you want to read a beautifully-written ghost story about grief, trauma, war, and love? Because I sure do, always.
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