Ghost 19

De: Simone St. James

Narrado por: Brittany Pressley

A woman moves to a town where she becomes obsessed with watching the lives of her neighbors while stuck in a house that refuses to let her leave in this first ever short story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.

Is there something wrong with Ginette Cox? It’s what everyone seems to think. When a doctor suggests that what she might need is less excitement, she packs up and moves from New York City to a house in suburban NY: 19 Howard Ave.

The town offers Ginette little in the way of entertainment in 1959, but at least she has interesting neighbors. Whether it’s the little girl with her doll or the couple and their mother-in-law, Ginette watches them from her window and makes up names and stories for them.

But it’s not all peaceful in suburbia. Ginette finds it hard to sleep in her new house. There are strange and scary noises coming from the basement, and she is trapped, either by a ghost or her own madness.

But when Ginette starts to think a murder has taken place and a mysterious man starts making terrifying appearances outside her window, it’s clear she must deal with whatever isn’t allowing her to escape this house…

©2022 Simone St. James (P)2022 Penguin Audio

it was okay

usually really love this author. while it was good. just didn't quite do it for me. still looking forward to many more books!

Very good interesting story.

Took me a bit to warm up to the main character.
The 1950’s were not known for their tolerance of differences, especially when it was a woman who was well spoken, opinionated and passionate.
Might we call it “The Age of Misogyny?”

Simone St. James doesn’t disappoint!

Loved the novella! My only complaint is that I want more! Can’t wait for her next novel!

okay

I LOVE Simone St. James. Maybe because this was a shorter story is the reason it's not my favorite? Not sure. I just didn't really like the main character much at all. The narrator is good.

Have you read woman in the window?

Well get ready for this book that is exactly like it but there’s ghosts … or are there?

This book was a fast read and worth it if you wanna hit a goal. I did enjoy it but once it got to the end it was a little ehhh. It just didn’t feel like it fit.

SPOILERS


You have this woman who can’t leave her house because the house just won’t let her so she spends all day watching her neighbors live their lives. Guessing what’s going on just by what she can see. And in doing so she sees what she assumes is a murder. Which spoiler everything was out of context because she can only see very few moments out of these peoples lives and there was no murder. But at the end there was. Well it happened 25 years prior and she just knows about it after she burns down the house and is released. Apparently that gave her all the knowledge about that house. After not talking about this at all any other time in the book. She’s just like ‘ Trixie was a child who was murdered here 25 years ago. Her remains are in the basement ‘. After the entire book being about a completely different family and how she thought they murdered grandma. Like ….. wtf.

I thought this was pretty good

A fun October listen... the narrator really set the tone for the time period and character

Fabulous performance, not so fabulous story

Let me preface this by saying that I read The Sundown Motel by this author and LOVED it so much. Maybe my expectations were too high, but this story fell flat for me. There was far too much fluff, not enough suspense and an anticlimactic ending.

The narrator was amazing though.

best read of the year so far

Upon finishing this book I was left with only one possible reaction: HOLY SHIT! And immediately added it to my haunted recommendations list including:
Sundown Motel by Simone St.James (the same author... a great book... but I think this is better)
Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Hell House By Matheson
For the love of the classics, I have to include Turn of The Screw by Henry James & Haunting of Hill House By Shirley Jackson
Of course The Shining By the King... also Later
Heart Shaped Box By Hill (aka King Jr lol)
Ghost Story by Straub
Not so spooky but masterful: Odd Thomas by Koontz
Centerville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons (I recommend reading the early connected books first)
And Widow's Point By Richard Chizmar & Billy Chizmar
Ghost 19 by Simone St.James
A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

"It was also the landscape of my own madness. Let me tell you why:"
Ghost 19 by Simone St.James

I was reminded a bit in one section of the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Frame of Mind... And later I got solid Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson vibes... bringing to mind a master of the craft says alot about this authors work!

“It seems so real when I sit here,” I said. “But I don’t know, do I? It could be a play, all of it. When I think of going out there, I think that maybe none of it is real, except me. And then I think that perhaps all of it is real, except me, and that’s much worse. Do you ever wonder that?”

"sitting on her back stoop, her head in her hands, quietly and fiercely weeping into her palms. Her shoulders shook and her pretty hair was coming loose from its neat ponytail, strands hanging down as she wept. She curled her knees up tighter, hugged them with her elbows, and let loose a storm of quiet agony, curled into herself like an autumn leaf.
I knew that kind of weeping. I’d cried like that—not just put out, or angry, but a storm of emotion let loose in an unstoppable wash. It had all the marks of a cry done in secret, let out in that judicious moment when no one can see, when no one will know. A cry done on schedule so that no one around you is inconvenienced and life can go on. I’d cried like that in dressing rooms and on the fire escape of the apartment I’d lived in with Henry. All over America, women cry like that in toilets, in their cars, and on their back stoops every day.
I wanted nothing more, in that moment, than to get up, go out my door, cross the path, and put my arms around her.
The hallway. The screaming. The voice. Shut up shut up shut up shut up . . ."

"The horribly lonely, sleepless days passed in a blur. Andrew didn’t come; no one came. Left alone with no one’s company but my own, I unraveled, thread by thread."

"his face that fascinating in-between of childhood and manhood, sweet, concerned eyes in a face that was all raw bones and possible stubble."

"He ignored me with the perfect ease of the young."

"Then I hesitated.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have sent him. Perhaps it was dangerous out there. But in that moment, I had the strange feeling: It was dangerous in here."

"My blood pulsed in my cheeks. This wasn’t a night hallucination; it was daylight and I was utterly sober. The soberest, in this moment, that I had ever been in my life. There were no pills, no alcohol, and no men in my system—none of my usual addictions. I was not imagining it. Something was there, and even though I couldn’t see it, I knew it wished me harm."

"I kept my gaze out the window. I could see Detective Challis so clearly in my mind’s eye, just like I could picture Andrew. Perhaps the detective wasn’t there anymore—had left ages ago—and I was just talking to myself."

"I didn’t move. I couldn’t; I was frozen with fear, my legs locked, my breath stopped in my throat. Because with his face so close to mine, I realized that he looked like a man—eyes, nose, mouth, crooked teeth as he slowly smiled at me—but he wasn’t a man at all.
There was only a thin pane of glass between us, a barrier that had seemed impenetrable until now. Now, with the man looking at me, it seemed almost comically flimsy. I could feel his malice, his cold coming through it, could feel waves of his madness that made mine look like child’s play. Whatever was looking at me through the glass had a depth of depravity that I had never known was possible, and right now it was staring at me."

"How long did it take me to crawl down that hallway? It felt like years. I fought for every inch as I moved forward, won every slow advance with waves of pain. My empty stomach had turned itself into knots more times than I could count. I glanced back and measured my progress by the blood streaks my wrist had left on the floor."

Good And Quick

I wish this was a full length novel, but it was a great novela and I can't wait to read the next thing Simone St. James writes.

great story

As always, Simone St. James delivers. another fully engrossing, spooky, and mysterious tale. I loved it.