My Phantoms

By: Gwendoline Riley

Narrated by: Helen McAlpine

Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as 'Hen') has always haunted Bridget.

Now, Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year, and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship - the performances and small deceptions - she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. But when Helen makes it clear that she wants more, it seems an old struggle will have to be replayed.

From the prize-winning author of First Love, My Phantoms is a bold, heart-stopping portrayal of a failed familial bond, which brings humour, subtlety and new life to the difficult terrain of mothers and daughters.

©2021 Gwendoline Riley (P)2021 Gwendoline Riley

Highly recommended if you like introspective stories

The narration was superb! The nuances in the voice of Hen’s little remarks really made her come alive for me.

The writing is very delicate, paints a vivid picture of entangled family relationships from just a few details. It is subtly heart-wrenching. It’s a great outlet for processing our own relationships with parents.

Absolutely hated this book.

Solely depressing and frustrating. no likeable characters, felt like a complete waste of time. Read Well by narrator, and that's the only positive i can muster!

Absolutely loved this book.

My Phantoms is as enjoyable a novel as I have read this year, perceptive, funny, heartbreaking, beautifully written and very well performed here. It is a short book but full of moments that will linger in the memory. As far as literature goes, this is the real stuff. I cannot wait to read more Gwendoline Riley’s work.

Depressing

Very sad story about mentally abused children and their uncaring / useless parents. Both patents should have been jailed, and the children put in a place where they could be properly looked after . Parents die - the end

I Wanted To Like This But…

While the story tells of a daughter’s familial struggles, predominantly with her mother, I could not help but feel derision for the cat-loving, vegan with a supercilious view on the world. Well read by the narrator but not a book I could enjoy as much as I wanted.

Not an easy listen

I would agree so depressing and seemed to go on forever the only good thing was the narration

Brilliant and unsettling

A short but powerful depiction of a woman's fraught relationship with her mother. Much of it makes for difficult listening, as both mother and daughter wrangle with largely unexpressed feelings and tensions, frequently attempting to outmanoeuvre one another. The narrator's lower-middle class English upbringing with attendant affectations and misplaced snobberies will be a little too close to home for some of us. As Bridget embarks upon PhD studies and then becomes an academic, the tensions between the lower-middle class and the professional middle class (in the UK) are laid bare, producing chasms between the central characters which are both trivial and enormous.
I was some way into the novel before I realised that the story reveals at least as much about Bridget as it does about her mother. This is brilliant writing, and wonderfully narrated.

Terrible miserable.

What a depressing book, well read, don't mean to be rude but it's an honest opinion.

Loved it

I really enjoyed this book. The story is heartbreaking, yet subtle, a lot comes from what isn't actually on the page. Great narration as well.

Compelling book, brilliantly narrated.

Irritation and condescension, the narrator caught the daughter's tone perfectly. Enhanced the reading experience.

what a bitter story

misunderstanding and sometimes outright dislike. I'm not sure whether I'm glad I listened or whether I'd rather not have heard any of the bitterness. Maybe it's too clever for me but I can't say I enjoyed it