I received this book to read and review as part of the 2020 BBNYA competition and the BBNYA tours organised by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest.
If you don’t know BBNYA, it is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors.
BBNYA is brought to you in association with the Folio Society (If you love beautiful books you NEED to check out their website!)
Specter by Katie Jane Gallagher
Genre: fantasy, YA
Stranger Things with a ghostly twist! This gripping, genre-bending debut will keep you holding your breath till the very last page.
Horror aficionado Lanie Adams should be thrilled when two eighties-era ghosts materialize in her bedroom. Yet after a fainting incident unbecoming of a horror nerd, she would rather her haunting just go away—the ghosts’ waterlogged voices and ice-cold auras are more terrifying than any movie. Enlisting the help of Ryan, an entirely-too-cute stoner, she makes it her mission to put the spirits stalking her to rest.
Some sleuthing reveals that their sleepy Connecticut town is host to a shadowy, decades-old conspiracy. If Lanie wants to say a final goodbye to her ghosts, she’ll need to keep digging. But it’s important to tread carefully. The culprit is still in town—and they’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.
Perfect for fans of Stranger Things! With strong characters who are easy to root for, this stunning, multilayered debut is not to be missed.
Katie Jane Gallagher is the author of Specter and The Gold in the Dark. Her stories feature relatable, realistic characters who get swept up in extraordinary events. An avid reader of YA and genre fiction, she has a self-proclaimed affinity for the best sorts of trash.
Born and raised in Illinois, Katie currently lives in Connecticut with her stupendous, half-human half-neanderthal husband and their dopey boxer dog. She graduated magna cum laude from Connecticut College in 2012, with a bachelor’s degree in Chinese language and literature and a minor in history.
I haven’t watched Stranger Things yet but I can assure you that Specter has many many strange things!
It starts right off with Lanie seeing the two blue-ghost-ish thingies. Lanie would do anything to stop having them visit her so she tries to get help from Ryan, the cute stoner, to stop the unwanted, weird visits. While trying to put an end to her problem, she discovers many things, one of which the fact that her boring town is harboring some fishy —I mean ghosty– things.
I liked the way the book was written, it was very fitting for its genre and overall story. The characters were likable and believable –minus the seeing ghosts part, though there are some people who actually claim to see ghosts, but we’re not talking about that at the moment– which really helps get that connection with the book even though they sometimes do stupid stuff.
The plot was full of twists, there were some parts full of action that it became hard for me to grasp everything at once, but that didn’t stop me from liking the book any less and combined with the writing style, it was just GrEaT!
If you’re looking for some spooky, horror books to read this month then this is definitely something you should try!!
librorum in sempiternum 