Atmospheric, ghostly and a creepy kid.

 

Ariadne, I love You is quite the atmospheric book. Ashley-Smith used all the senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch to place the reader right into the story. As with many ghost stories, the question is "Is there a ghost or is the main character insane?" With this unreliable narrator it's a coin flip whether he's haunted or insane. That, to me, makes for deeper reading than when there's an obvious ghost. There's a creepy kid, too. Creepy kids are always good.

There's whole bunches of smoking in this book. I'm surprised the creepy kid wasn't smoking, too. The story would be half as long if they quit lighting up. Okay, I exaggerate but I haven't seen this much smoking since 1950's noir. I'm sneezing right now thinking about it.

All in all it is a crawly, gothic story mainly set in an old moldy train car. With a ghost. Or is there?

Thanks to Netgalley and Meerkat publishers for letting me read this digital ARC of Ariadne, I Love You.