'The Girl on the Glider' – Brian Keene

Brian Keene is making a different book, of his, available for 99 cents each week and not only should you be all over that anyway (there's nothing better than a Brian Keene book to get you through tough times and the world is full of those right now) but I thought I'd read each book as the discount hits. Gives me an excuse to re-visit some old favourites but more importantly, a chance to fill in some gaps where I haven't read the book yet, there aren't many of these but there are a few ;o)

'The Girl on the Glider' is the first book to get discounted and it's one that has sat on my Kindle for a little while, mostly because I'm English and was trying to get my head round the notion of a ghost flying a glider... Yep, I know. It's funny what stops you picking up a book and just how wrong you can be about it. Once I realised my mistake, I found 'The Girl on the Glider' a lot easier to pick up and damn, what a read it turned out to be. Here's a story that is going to stay with me for a while...

The year is 2009, and the world’s financial and publishing sectors are in chaos. In the midst of this disarray, a burned-out horror writer finds himself haunted by a variety of ghosts, both real and metaphorical. And as the ghosts increase their attacks, his struggle to make a living quickly becomes a fight to hold on to his family – and his very sanity.

One of the things that keeps me coming back to Keene's writing is the deeply personal place where it all comes from. I'd say that Keene isn't afraid to draw on his own experiences but I suspect it's more the case that he can't help himself. Either way, you have a book that deals with people at their most raw, because that's where Keene lives, and that's never a bad thing. Horror will do that to people and you get to see how they react.

All of this is a slightly longwinded way of saying that 'The Girl on the Glider' goes even further into those places and it really pays off. I don't think I'll ever read another book like it.

'The Girl on the Glider' has a simple message at it's heart, wrapped up in a deft mix of ghost story and the kind of horror that you can only find in real life. The ghost story is appropriately chilling but it was the exploration of what we do to ourselves, without even thinking about it, that really resonated with me. Because we've all been there, haven't we? Not even trying to win the race, just trying to keep up with everything and letting the most important parts of our lives fall away. When you realise what you're doing, it's terrifying and Keene pulls no punches showing us what this meant for him, and what he lost as a result. And at the same time, Keene has to face either losing the very thing that makes him who he is... Or face up to the fact that some ghosts may be real. It's a horrible choice but he's up to it and that is what ultimately makes the story so readable, much more so than if anyone else had been the lead.

'The Girl on the Glider' is an excellent ghost story but it's so much more than that, at the same time, and that's why it will be poking away at me tomorrow when I should be working. It's a book that really makes you look at where you are and whether it's worth the cost to stay there. I can't wait for my daughters to come back from holiday so I can give them both a big hug and tell them that I love them.