there it is again

by Marissa Yarrow

How can you be haunted by someone who isn't dead?
It’s always been like this. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t afraid of the dark. Maybe when I was a small child there was a time - between my loss of fear of the boogeyman and the growth of the fear of that which I know lingers in the shadows - when I wasn’t afraid of the dark, but I don’t think so. I think I’ve always had something to fear in the shadows.
My father's ghost.
Ghosts of exes.
The ghost of my mother comes through the speaker of my phone to berate me in person while she shouts on the other end.
They've gotten louder and bolder than I've ever seen them before, and I don't think I'll be able to force them back into the shadows.
Are they real, or are they just my own guilty conscience tormenting me for what I've done?

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 13, 2022

About the author

Marissa Yarrow is an indie thriller and horror author based in Colorado.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this book. The author’s choice not to use quotation marks felt absolutely integral to the flow and style of the story. It was not a comfortable read but I don’t think it was meant to be. This didn’t feel like a work of fiction to me, partially because the themes hit extremely close to home, but also because it was just so well written. It truly felt like I’d jumped inside of the narrator’s mind and was along for the ride until the final sentence. I didn’t want to put this book down.
I am very much looking forward to reading more of Marissa Yarrow’s work.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, thank you to Marissa Yarrow for reaching out to me and asking me to read the ARC of your book. This is my honest review.

The book has the potential to be really good, but as a reader, I struggled reading it. I’m not exactly sure why, but the author did not use quotations for any of the conversations that occur within the book. The ghosts who whisper/speak to her is written the same way as a regular conversation with her friend. I think it would be helpful if the human conversations were written with quotations and the whisperings from the ghosts were put into italics. At least it would help the reader differentiate between what is being really said, or what the ghosts are saying, or what the inner monologue is.

When the author approached me, she described the book in a certain way to me (don’t want to give anything away), and while did she did a great job of putting out the pieces to the puzzle, the puzzle never comes together, and the ending is left without a real conclusion.

All this being said, I think we some editing this could be a really good book!

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have all experienced some sort of traumatic event in our lives and I think the author successfully relates the issues that her characters face with the reader, whether they be internal, familial, or societal. The fact that the author does not use quotation marks at first might seem off-putting but I found it to be an important literary device, as the line between what is real and what isn't becomes increasingly blurred as the story progresses. I felt angry, sad, anxious and tense while reading this book as some of the darkest thoughts that we all experience are evoked in a progressively supernatural way.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a wild ride. Our main character is haunted by the ghosts of dead and alive people, since she was a child. I was a bit annoyed that there weren't any speech marks but it ended up working and you couldn't tell what was really happening and what wasn't. Trigger warnings are in the beginning of the story which I liked.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story and a unique plan on a haunting. The main character here is" Ghost " of people that are not even dead. They belittle and criticize them. Throughout the story. You have a feeling that the main character is having a mental break. But you can't decide if they're actually hearing the voices or if it's just their imagination, that's the creation of their guilt. This book was really interesting and it really messes with your mind isn't that knowing what is real or not?

[Michele Bergh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the storyline of this book and I think the concept is great. I struggled a bit to read it as it seemed like a little more editing would be helpful and the lack of quotation marks but I also feel like that was a choice to exclude and I can see why the author would make that choice. Overall, it was a good story.

[Micki_1989 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing

Not entirely sure what to make of this book and story it is very confusing. I tried to make sense of it but I really struggled.

[Ryan LaMantia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! There It Is Again is about self-reflection and confronting the "ghosts" from the past. Great read! Highly recommend!

[Deven VanKirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book. This nameless narrator is haunted by ghosts. She has been her whole life.
I didn’t like that there no quotation marks during dialogue in the book. It made it difficult to know who was speaking or if an inner monologs was going on.
I would add a trigger warning to this book for emotional abuse. I feel like the author captured that type of experience very well, very believably.
With some editing (there were a lot of spelling errors too,) this could be a good novel