Ash Wednesday

by Chet Williamson

In Merridale, semi-transparent blue apparitions have appeared. These aren't ghosts, exactly. They are visions of the dead in their final moments - the last seconds of their lives portrayed for all to see. They don't move, and they don't speak.Ash Wednesday is a thoughtful horror story about what happens to people when they are forced to gaze into the face of death and, specifically, the face of their own personal their friends and family, those they believed to be dead and gone. Murders are revealed, rapes and other crimes. People despair, and try to create new lives out of the wreckage. Two of these are Bradley Meyers, a vet already driven half-crazy by his experiences in Vietnam, confronted by the sight of his dead son, and now barely capable of containing his rage, and Jim Callender, whose son has died in the same accident, for which he is partly responsible. As Callender sinks into guilt, Meyers moves toward murder.This edition of Ash Wednesday contains a final portion that was not included with the book when it was first published. It was removed due to an editorial decision to which I acquiesced. After the book appeared, the last chapter was published in Bill Munster's excellent small press magazine, Footsteps. The entire book as originally written appears here, and in the accompanying audiobook, for the first time.-- Chet Williamson

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Paranormal, Audiobook, Ghost Stories

Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Chet Williamson has written horror, science fiction, and suspense since 1981. Among his novels are Second Chance, Hunters, Defenders of the Faith, Ash Wednesday, Reign, Dreamthorp, and the forthcoming Psycho Sanitarium, an authorized sequel to Robert Bloch's classic Psycho. Over a hundred of his short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, The Magazine of F&SF, and many other magazines and anthologies.

He has won the International Horror Guild Award, and has been shortlisted twice for the World Fantasy Award, six times for the HWA Stoker, and once for the MWA's Edgar. Nearly all of his works are available in ebook format.

A stage and film actor, he has recorded over 40 unabridged audiobooks, both of his own work and that of many other writers, available at www.audible.com. Follow him on Twitter (@chetwill) or at www.chetwilliamson.com.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cover of the 1988 Headline mass-market I have, 372 pages. Artist is unfortunately uncredited. (ISBN is 0747230730 and ISBN 13 is 9780747230731 in case a librarian feels like adding it.)

This was pretty unique as far as supernatural horror fiction from this era goes, as the ghosts here are not really the focus of the story, merely the inciting event for everything that follows. They appear suddenly all over your typical King-esque “everybody knows everybody” small town, frozen in their moments of death. The ghosts don’t actually do anything; it’s the townspeople’s reaction to these motionless spectres that drives the story, as certain secrets come out into the open and people have to confront past deeds that were probably best left buried and forgotten.

It’s well-written, with some top-notch characterization as well as a couple creepy moments here and there (mostly at the beginning) but overall felt a little too sprawling and leisurely-paced for my tastes. I’ll give Williamson props for attempting a haunted town novel where the phantoms are entirely benign, however. I just tend to prefer a bit more spooky supernatural shenanigans in my horror, or at least more narrative momentum or a sustained atmosphere of unease, which was almost totally lacking here.

But if you’re looking for a semi-realistic (other than the ghosts) character study about how a town might react to something inexplicable like this — as well as having their hidden “dirty laundry” in plain view in some cases — this just might suit your fancy.

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars!

A beautifully written and touching story of what happens when the dead of the town of Merridale are suddenly visible and blue. They're visible in the places in which they died or in the places that meant the most to them when they were alive. At first, people are freaked out, (wouldn't you be?), but then they get used to it. Well, some do and some don't.

The characters in this story are well drawn and believable. This is a story about guilt, and about making the most of the short time that we have here on earth, among other things.

I'd classify this as a quiet horror tale, not too many bloody, ugly scenes and that's the type of horror I prefer these days-the quiet, atmospheric, and psychological kind. This book just hit all the right notes with me. Bravo!

Highly recommended!

You can get a Kindle copy here for only $2.99!: https://www.amazon.com/Ash-Wednesday-...

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was billed as a horror novel by Tor in 1987, 'weird fiction' might be a better classification regarding genre. Set in a small town in PA called Merridale, Ash Wednesday starts with a bang, when one night blue glowing 'ghosts' of dead townspeople suddenly appear, either where they died, or some (like those killed in Vietnam) at their various 'hang outs', like a park bench. The ghostly blue figures are all nude and quite vivid, displaying for the world how they died.

Of course, the town folk panic, dogs start yowling, and no one knows what to do. After the rather explosive beginning, however, the story coalesces around a handful of locals and Williamson tells their stories and reactions, and rotates POVs accordingly. Confronting the dead obviously unsettles many people in the town, and about 1/3 simply pack up and leave; the remainders are almost forced to rethink the meaning of death and perhaps beyond this, why such an event occurred.

Ash Wednesday is not a conventional ghost story by any means as the ghosts just 'are', and the many scientists and so forth can only say the spectrum of light that makes them glow. The real gist the novel is how the town folk react. For some, it induces a profound guilt, seeing the dead loved ones they abandoned in life, or their dead parents 'sitting' at the table, etc. The appearance of the ghosts shakes the local priest's faith, and rekindles some rather bad memories in a Vietnam vet.

Williamson does an excellent job here regarding how national media, evangelists, and political figures react to the strangeness in town; the town (and its 'ghouls') quickly becomes a national phenomena, only to fade when no one can explain why the 'ghosts' appeared, and yes, the ghosts just 'are'-- not moving or changing an iota. Some folks place curtains around them to hide their presence as they try to get on with their lives. Some murders are shown in a new, ghostly blue light that instigates some confessions. Ash Wednesday really focuses upon the sociological reaction to the ghosts rather than the ghosts themselves...

This is well written and the characters really come to life in a believable way, but the story just seems to meander and ends without any meaningful denouement. Very interesting read, but do not expect a horror novel here. 3 ghostly stars!!

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

ASH WEDNESDAY, by Chet Williamson, is not what I consider to be a "horror novel" on its own--rather more "psychological", with some horror elements. The small town of Merridale wakes one morning to find glowing blue "shades" of ghosts all around them. Wherever they died, in whatever manner, these apparitions appear as they did in their final moments. While they don't "do" anything other than simply be visible to those around them, the implications of this phenomenon are what really make this story so unique.

". . . It was not the fear of the outward appearances of the dead returned so much as the fear of what had brought them back . . . "

The ramifications are numerous. These non-substantial visions are--by simply appearing where they died--showing the entire town "how" and "where" they died. Murders are revealed, and deaths whose cause could only be guessed at once, are now able to be confirmed merely by sight. Guilt weighs on some, fear for others, and madness still more.

The characters in this novel are what really make the story come alive. Williamson goes through great measures to give the reader a complete feel for each of the main people in the town. He doesn't simply "dump" the information on us all at once, but rather reveals it throughout the course of the entire story as it unfolds. Characters that at first sight seem hateful, you may come to feel for. Others that seem to be above reproach, later turn into something much worse than you would have ever thought. The "why" of the occurrence is what drives this novel mentally, leaving a flurry of speculation in its wake.

". . . I think everybody thinks about death a lot, . . . but now we think about it more. We're reminded of it constantly, of our own mortality. . . "

Although the ghosts are the "main event" at first sight, the real story is the reaction, actions, and even inactions of those that LIVE in Merridale. This novel is about the real humans, and the emotions held by them.

". . . Merridale, from afar, was 'a town of the dead' . . . "

A captivating book that explores what it might mean to be confronted with the--before, unknown--every day of your life, and the changes that it would make upon a person's mental outlook.

Highly recommended!

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, thoughtful study of a community's reactions to an inexplicable city-wide supernatural event. I found it smart & thoroughly entertaining. Ignore the lurid cover, which presents the novel as a bloodcurdling mainstream horror thriller, which it simply is not. This opened the book up to reactions such as the one from the reviewer below, who wrote: "The ghosts are just a prop in this story and probably some kind of metaphor for something." Gee, ya think? ;-)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book from an author I would love to explore more about (I see he has connections to the Crow books which during the early 90s was all the rage and was the favourite of several of my friends). This book takes a "what if..." statement and turns it in to a full blown exploration - the apparitions draw out peoples, fears and insecurities, their failures and the crimes with some expected and unexpected results. I guess this for a horror book at least is really a character piece and as such I can see that many equally love it or hate it. For me its something totally different and for that a fascinating read though I do not think it is for everyone. Sadly the book version I have - is not here which I think is a shame - sometimes UK book covers are not as impressive or emotive as the US version but for once I think it is.

[Rodney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid piece of fiction that brought me back to the mass market paperback days of horror. A complete picture of the town of Merridale is painted in all of its charm and drama, with a nice cast of characters. The apparitions suddenly appearing in town have dramatic and long-term effects on the population. Introspection, insecurities and speculation are all strong elements as each character deals with the ghosts in their own way.
There are scenes and characters that will anger, sadden and excite. My favorites being Eddy and his discovery in the town watering hole, Brad's "dealing" with Thornton, and the dynamics in the interaction between Jim and Alice.
I wasn't sure what I was getting when I cracked this one open, but the premise was intriguing and the author has created a great tale around it. Recommended!

[Cheryl Leon Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books written by an author who never really did anything else noteworthy, and I just read it as a fluke. But I think of this story all the time! It's about a town in which one day -- for no reason -- translucent unmoving ghostly images of bodies, showing exactly the way someone appeared at the moment of their death, appeared. So, for example, hospital beds were full of them (imagine waking up in that) and you could go see a loved one again if you knew where he or she died (which would usually be horrible) One man had a lynched slave "hanging" in his living room -- from a time before his house was ever there. And though you never really find out "why" the drama that they create made for a great book!

[T.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goddamn, Chet.
I thought this more than once while reading this novel, about a town called Merridale, and the bizarre thing that happens there.

One night, all the dead of Merridale show up, glowing blue, where they died. If it was crossing the street and getting hit by a car, if it was sitting in the den watching TV, if it was in the hospital - where ever they took their last breath, and in what ever state that was, that's where and how they appear. For no discernible reason.

How the denizens of the town handle this phenomenon is vast and varied.
And if you think the dead coming back as zombies is scary, you ain't read nothing yet. No, these dead don't do anything, per se. But the chain reactions they start are quite enough. People lose their faith and their sanity. Some become greedy, some become cowardly. In some, long buried histories come raging to the fore to finally be exposed to the light of day.
And I quote: "He closed the ten-yard gap then, walking dreamlike to the banquet table to gorge himself on the physical evidence of his guilt. The guilt opened now, like a bloom fully mature, its five blue petals gleaming in the sun..."
Chet Williamson writes brilliant prose like the above example, turning something odd into one of the most brutal things to happen to a community.

They don't write them like this very often.
Mr. Williamson needs to write more like this. A lot.

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5, rounded down.

First of all, I feel like I should mention that this isn't really a horror novel, at least not in the way that most people picking up a Tor novel from the 80's by Chet Williamson will likely be expecting. You could call it quiet horror, but I think it's really just a drama with supernatural elements, so adjust your expectations accordingly. Now, with that said, I thought this was an excellent novel, my first from Williamson, but it certainly won't be my last. The character work is outstanding, and the plot while strange and unexpectedly disturbing, is deeply melancholic and forces the book's inhabitants and the reader to confront mortality. In a much different way than most genre fare, in a more stark and haunting way. A deeper and perhaps more impactful way. I still don't entirely know what to think about the ending, but I will be mulling it over for some time.

[Mike Kazmierczak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death. This novel is about death. Not just what happens after but how death affects the living, the before. This shouldn't be anything surprising though considering the story is about the dead returning as ghosts.

Specifically, overnight the town of Merridale has semi-transparent blue apparitions appear; these are 3D snapshots of the last moment of the dead. Sometimes appearing at their place of death; sometimes they are at someplace important to their lives. And while the dead don't cause any physical harm, the mental fatigue is significant. Jim Callender who lost his son in a school bus accident sinks into a guilty depression; Brad Meyers who lost his son in the same accident has his rage go from a simmer to a boil. Some come back to try to get closure while others run to get away from what they fear. Either way, the spirits have a lasting affect on the town.

Getting back to death though, while near the end of the book Williamson does an excellent job of dwelling on the impact of death, the point him me much sooner. Jim was telling his back story and what happened to Terry, his son. I was actually thinking that the novel was moving slow, that for a novel about ghosts returning to town as blue, hovering spirits that we were spending very little time on those ghosts. Then Jim's story sunk into me and I was floored. The book turned from a slow moving story to something that left me wondering and thinking and near tears. That was the point where I realized that the characters were complex with good and bad, that they had their issues to work through, that they were real. From that point on, I could hardly put the book down. Not because it was a page-turner full of excitement but because I had to know what was going to happen. I had to know how people were going to deal with the impact of the ghosts. Needless to say, the book is highly recommended.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not straight up horror, but not straight up psychological thriller, Williamson’s Ash Wednesday kinda of slips into the “quiet horror” genre and asks the question of what happens when the dead appear where they died as transparent but immovable specters.

While the concept was interesting, I found the story a bit too open ended for tastes as the “how” or “why” is never explicitly mentioned and left to, what I suppose, is the reader’s own interpretation.

That being said, Williamson’s talent with writing is something to be commended and analyzed. Much as McCammon writes characters with emotional depth and realism, so too does Williamson. His fictional citizens of Meridale are fleshed out, full of real problems and real feelings. Their problems are relatable. The skeletons in their closets could be the same and your’s or mine. I found myself totally hooked on many of the citizens backstories, wondering how their dark pasts would come to light with the appearance of dead loved ones or enemies. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Ash Wednesday won the 1987 Bram Stoker award and it’s pretty apparent why.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Less of an overt "ooga booga" ghost story and more of a story of grief, trauma, and guilt affecting the living. Easily one of the most unique ghost stories I can think of.

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ash Wednesday is a good novel, well written, but ultimately left more questions than answers.
Suddenly one day the residents of Merridale, Pa. awakened by the insistent barking of dogs discover strange blue glowing objects all over town. These objects are the dead. For some unknown reason every person that had died are suddenly appearing naked, exactly where they died in exactly the position they were in when they died.
The town has to learn to deal with these "ghosts" as time moves on the apparitions don't disappear and in fact those that die after also come back as a glowing blue image. These images are insubstantial, you cannot touch them, in fact there are a few humorous scenes such as when a car drives over one, the image suddenly appears inside the car, just the part that was higher than the floorboard.
These images drive many to leave and move elsewhere, those that stay, some go crazy others learn to live with it. A pastor loses faith then regains it when he starts to think this was a manifestation from God. But why only this one town? If this was meant to awaken people to the fact that they should live their lives like a gift, then why just this one town. The novel ends on Ash Wednesday, when suddenly this phenomenon spreads further.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is considered a modern horror classic. I don't think it's very good and don't understand what the big deal was about.

The premise is interesting enough. On Ash Wednesday, the good folks of Merridale, PA wake up to find ghosts all over their small town. These ghosts are naked. They are in houses, streets, public buildings, everywhere. The apparitions are frozen in the exact moment of their deaths, so some are quite gruesome, others are peaceful. The ghosts neither speak nor move. They're just there.

The town makes the national news. Some hotshot from the government shows up to investigate.

So that's pretty cool. Williamson then introduces some characters. One man finds the ghost of his mistress in his bed. He killed her and his wife never found out. Another haunted Vietnam vet sees the ghost of his long-lost buddy. One lady who has moved away comes back to see the ghost of a boyfriend who died years ago. Another man sees the ghost of his son, killed in a fiery bus accident in which he (the man) was the driver.

Okay, so we got the situation and the characters. And then, nothing. The rest of the book is essentially a character study and not a very interesting one. The only thing that actually happens is the Vietnam vet goes psycho (nice stereotype there).

The ghosts are just a prop in this story and probably some kind of metaphor for something, but I didn't care enough about the book to figure it out. This novel is way overrated, and I am so glad I paid just two bucks for it at a used book sale.

[Ken Ditzhazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first book by Chet Williamson, and honestly, the premise hooked me right away. A small town wakes up to find ghosts just… hanging out. Not Casper-style, not rattling chains, just standing there like supernatural lawn ornaments. Creepy, but in a “I can’t stop reading this” kind of way.

The story itself? A little all over the place. There are a lot of characters and arcs going on at the same time, and every so often I felt like I needed a flowchart. Still, it kept me turning pages, and I was invested enough to want to see where all these threads tied together.

Did it change my life? Nope. Did I enjoy the ride? Yep. Sometimes that’s exactly what I want out of a book: something that keeps me curious, entertains me, and leaves me with that slightly unsettled “well that was weird” feeling when I close it.

Overall: creepy premise, a bit chaotic, but a good time. I’d definitely pick up another one of his books.

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was one of the few stories I've read that doesn't rely completely on monsters or gore to still give you the shivers. Ash Wednesday reminds us that the real terrors aren't the monsters or ghosts, but fallible human beings with deep interwoven pasts and proverbial skeletons in the closet.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chet Williamson is a hard hitting writer. Definitely horror. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I thought, when this all started, I thought that we'd learn more, that we were lucky, we were chosen, that by, by staring death in the face so openly, we'd learn to live better. Knowing, you see, knowing that death's waiting would make us value living so much more that we'd be better, be kinder to each other. But we weren't."

content warnings animal death, child death, domestic violence, sexual assault

One day, Merridale is just your typical small, conservative town where people go because they don't want anything to happen, and the next, it's the epicentre of a global revelation. Because one day, the living residents of Merridale wake up to the ethereal blue ghosts of its dead residents, frozen in the exact moment and anchored in the exact place of their death (generally. there are exceptions), in whatever peaceful or gruesome form it took. And, as it says on the cover: "There is no peace in Merridale once the ghosts appear!", but not for the reasons this implies.

You see: the ghosts don't do anything. They aren't sentient, they don't go bump in the night, they don't move at all. They're just there. Naturally, that's still enough to freak people out.

But 'Ash Wednesday' isn't really about the ghosts; it's about how everyone reacts to them. We see a mass exodus from the town of people who aren't too keen on living in a house with a ghost chilling in their living room -- particularly if the person whose ghost it is died violently or in pain. Many of those that remain cover the ghosts up if they're in a public space, or close off the rooms that they're in and avoid them and try to get on with life as usual.

Then there are those for whom the ghosts hold personal significance. A father whose son died in a horrific bus crash where he was the driver views the ghosts as a means of reconciling his guilt. A woman who abandoned her boyfriend when he returned from Vietnam badly mutilated and slowly dying of his injuries returns to atone. One man becomes a shut in with the ghost of his beloved dead wife. A clergyman's faith is badly shaken.

Relationships break up when couples can't agree on whether to stay in town or leave and start over somewhere ghost-free. But others form between people bonded by guilt or grief or convenience.

And then the rest of the world finds out about the Merridale ghosts. Predictably, a media circus ensues and scientists descend on the once sleepy town. For a while. But although there's initially a lot of money and potential breakthroughs to be made out of this wild story, because the ghosts don't change or move, the world is left scratching its head before slowly losing interest.

These are the parts of 'Ash Wednesday' that are really good; all of the existential dread, facing mortality, staring down the possibility of ending up as one of the ghosts yourself, confronting the ghosts of people you once knew.

But this is also a novel that didn't quite seem like its author knew what he wanted the plot to be beyond this initial premise. Many seemingly meaningful side plots go nowhere, there are a few too many POV characters for a novel of this scope, and what ends of being the climax feels detached from the set up.

Williamson clearly wanted to talk about the aftermath of the Vietnam war, but he was never really able to integrate it into the ghost story successfully and it often felt shoehorned in. For instance, one of the mechanics of the ghosts is that they appear exactly where they died in the position in which they died. But, because he wants to include this Vietnam connection, an exception has to be made for a kid from the town who died in Vietnam but somehow his mangled ghost appears on a local park bench 'because he hung out there a lot when he was alive.' Sorry, I don't buy it.

Similarly, one of our main POV characters is a guy called Brad, who returned from Vietnam with terrible PTSD that manifests as violent outbursts during which he beats up his wife and then his girlfriend, and then some other people. Not to say that doesn't happen, but as another reviewer pointed out, it would have been a little bit trite even in 1987 to do a 'Vietnam vet turned deranged killer' story, even if Williamson clearly tried to do it with empathy.

I suspect that he either felt some pressure to create a villain (even a somewhat sympathetic one) or was told by TOR there needed to be an action-packed climax, because it felt very out of place in a tale that otherwise relied on dread as the backbone of its horror.

Nevertheless, it was an otherwise good, spooky read, and Williamson is a talented writer that brought us a unique and interesting take on death and existential dread that wouldn't be out of place in a lineup with something like 'Pet Semetary'.

[Showcasing Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Description:

In Merridale, semi-transparent blue apparitions have appeared. These aren’t ghosts, exactly. They are visions of the dead in their final moments – the last seconds of their lives portrayed for all to see. They don’t move, and they don’t speak.

Ash Wednesday is a thoughtful horror story about what happens to people when they are forced to gaze into the face of death and, specifically, the face of their own personal dead: their friends and family, those they believed to be dead and gone. Murders are revealed, rapes and other crimes. People despair, and try to create new lives out of the wreckage. Two of these are Bradley Meyers, a vet already driven half-crazy by his experiences in Vietnam, confronted by the sight of his dead son, and now barely capable of containing his rage, and Jim Callender, whose son has died in the same accident, for which he is partly responsible. As Callender sinks into guilt, Meyers moves toward murder.

My Review and Thoughts:


I really loved this book. It not only has the trademarks of horror, but it has the dramatic aspects of a thought provoking exploration of life and death. The story plays on the readers mind and lingers long after the is book is over. This is one book I really didn't want to end. The stories all weaved together to create a storyteller’s mastery.

That is what makes this book unique, you are given the life, and past of the town folks. Each story is told in flashbacks that come together in the present, as the living stare upon the ghost like images of the dead, in the spots they died. They appear in the way they died, on the spot they died at. Some disturbing. Some in the image of visceral carnage.

This is my first book I have ever read by the author, and it surprises me that I have never read anything that he has done. I was very happy to finally experience this storyteller. His imagery in word form, is a storytelling mastery that very few writers have. I highly recommend Chet Williamson, and I highly recommend this book.

My Rating: 4 out of 5

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew, boy, was this book a heavy, difficult read. It explores difficult concepts of PTSD, domestic violence, child abuse, faith and religion, greed, and - of course - depth.

It's a very interesting premise to have to live with the still ghosts of a town and how people would react when having to be constantly face to face with death and unable to really be able to perform cognitive dissonance to help get through it. This is a book of life topics, so don't go into it expecting a satisfying ending that's neatly wrapped up. It ends much in the way life does in that it doesn't end. The dead leave the land of the living, but life goes on and the Earth keeps turning.

I enjoyed the book, but I definitely needed a palette cleanser afterwords. If you like books that make you really think and confront difficult subjects, this is the book for you.

[Kilgallen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot going on in this one. A plethora of characters and their individual experiences in their town as the dead become visible. This one was extremely low on the spooky scale....really no feelings of dread or unease in regards to the ghostly residents. There were some interesting back stories and characters but things didn't really come together in the end...just many individual stories . Guess I was looking for more spooky then I found here.

[Eric Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pretty hyped about this. A town where ghosts suddenly appear. I was looking for something far more sinister though. I had expectations that weren't met. The story is great, the characters and the backgrounds superb. The ending however wasn't what I was looking for but still good.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very strange book. Wasn’t exactly what I expected. Started out interesting but as it continued not so much. I think there is a deeper message in this book. Not to scare but to teach the living that there are more important things to consider because life is short.

[timj26 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small town trying to cope with the ghostly images that popped up all over town
Excellent narration from Chet as always
Very original with great characters highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

[Noel · Rating 2 out of 5]

a great idea but not a great read in the middle you think what the hell is going on read it twice but never again thank you

[Emily]

DNF

[Heather L. Cowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story! HORRIBLE formating

Truly a unique storyline, one i really enjoyed. Too bad there are dozens of typos on every single page. Threw me out of the story.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time in the town of Merridale the townsfolk wake in the middle of night to an unwelcome surprise. Naked blue apparitions litter the town in a tableau representing their last moments of life. They don’t move. They don’t speak. They just are. The veil is parted as crimes of passion once forgotten, childhood accidents and violent murders are revealed to all. This story is less about why the ghosts have appeared and more about how a town reacts when confronted with the unknown. An enjoyable read with deep characters and a unique twist on the ghost story genre.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not exactly what I would call horror, but it has some elements of it. A very original concept... what happens when a ton of ghostly images of dead people appear in a small town, and nothing seems to happen? As the story progresses, they do have an effect, but not what I first expected. Chet Williamson has a very professional writing style.