Swallow the Ghost

A Novel

De: Eugenie Montague

Narrado por: Matt Godfrey, Dan Bittner, Jennifer Pickens, James Fouhey

Swallow the Ghost traces the impact of a violent event on three different lives, each interconnected story further complicating the truth.

Things are going well for Jane Murphy, or so it seems. She’s making it in New York, a sort of wunderkind at the social media marketing startup where she works. She’s put an experimental writer, Jeremy Miller, on the map by helping him concoct a viral internet novel, told in fragments through various fake social media accounts. But privately, Jane feels trapped, ruled by her routines and her compulsions, caught up in an endless cycle of soothing and punishing herself. There is so much that she has to keep hidden, especially from Jeremy as their professional relationship transforms into something more.

But then, tragedy strikes, and the story changes track. As the perspective shifts, so too does our image of Jane and those in her orbit as what we think we know begins to unravel.

Audacious, emotionally precise and head-spinning in its ingenuity, Swallow the Ghost interrogates our public identities and private realities through the kaleidoscopic portrait of one woman's life.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Jane Murphy is a social media start-up worker whose star is on an inevitable rise. Or so it seems. Swallow The Ghost draws readers into Jane’s world only to open a series of trap doors that plunge us into different perspectives and realities, twisting what we think we know into new and unsettling shapes. Eugenie Montague has created a thrilling, intricate ecosystem of ambition, secrecy, and invention in this remarkable debut."—Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears

"Prismatic, shrewd, and darkly funny, Swallow the Ghost is a hypnotic ride through the psyche of three people forever linked by a shocking act of violence. Eugenie Montague’s debut is a twisted nesting doll housing an internet novel, an art monster novel, and a true crime novel that manages to be both deeply of the moment and utterly timeless. I inhaled it."—Ruth Madievsky, author of the national bestseller All-Night Pharmacy

"At the heart of this unconventional murder mystery lies the enigma of the self: who we are, what drives us, and why we harm ourselves and others. Fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and Susan Choi will love its viscerality and structural inventiveness, while its twists and turns will thrill readers of Tana French and Rebecca Makkai. A truly surprising and original debut."—J. Robert Lennon, author of Hard Girls and Broken River

"Swallow the Ghost is part murder mystery, part philosophical treatise, part head-trip, but all of it is a sheer pleasure to read. It takes the tropes and conventions of a conventional thriller and turns them on their heads. An impressive and wicked debut by Eugenie Montague."—Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of Eight Perfect Murders

"Swallow the Ghost is bold, breathtaking, and utterly original. Eugenie Montague walks her narrative tightrope fearlessly, delivering a story that is at once a wickedly clever mystery, a thoughtful study of identity in the modern age, and a meditation on the power of narratives."—Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author

"Reading this novel feels like picking an intricate lock. This is a mystery—a thrilling, page-turning mystery—but rather than only asking what happened, the arrows here point us inward at the strange landscape of perception and memory and the notion of a self (what’s more mysterious than that?). Eugenie Montague is crazy-smart and Swallow the Ghost is both haunted and haunting."—Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal

Monotonous

Yeah, should have noted the groundhog theme. Just couldn’t finish. Just got too bored by this story.

Didn’t get it

The abstract implies some revelation from hearing the story from different perspectives. I heard no great revelation. Just a story And not a particularly interesting one.

3 Distinct Sections; I Only Enjoyed Two of Them

I found the first two sections, each from a different perspective, interesting. Even intriguing. The third put me to sleep every time. Pretentious and pointless. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess.

Very ordinary

I didn’t like much not really to my taste. Hard to forget the plot. Not to my taste.

Worst book ever

Some character development was good. Reader did a nice job other than that. The book was a total waste of time.

I gotta stop buying the deal of the day…

Awful. So bad I might throw up. 9 hours I will never get back. I thought in the middle it was really going to be a mystery. But alas, just pure crap…

Not One Likable Character

I am amazed at my self-discipline in finishing this worthless assembly of words. I couldn’t find anything interesting or redemptive about the book. I kept hoping, but my take away is that these lost hours can never be regained. What a waste of time!

Strange and intriguing book - not your typical murder mystery

The book was very well narrated. I liked hearing all of the characters’ voices. The ending is making me rethink everything, but I like it. It’s a very cerebral book that is longing to go beyond the cerebral. I’m not sure it succeeds, but it is a valiant attempt, at any rate. It’s a book with a contemporary feel, but also one that longs to take us back to the classics and the big questions that they ask. There’s a certain mise en abyme quality to the plot and it’s clearly about representation and writing, but, like Jeremy??, the writer wishes to “give something back” if this review totally turns you off, you might not like the book, lol. It’s twisty, and leaves you with — not sure yet. Not nothing, but not certainty…

Don't waste your time

This book was akin to a staircase with a door at the top. When you open the door, there is another set of stairs with yet another door at the top. When you open that door, there's just an empty white room: boring and pointless as hell. The narration was top tier. That was the book's only redeeming quality.

I Can't Believe I Read the Whole Thing

This novel is divided into three parts. The first takes the reader through the life of Jane, who works for a media company. It's like Groundhog Day except that, unlike Bill Murray's character in the movie, Jane's life stays essentially the same, day after day. I thought about quitting after about the twentieth time Jane woke up with a sore throat. The second part is about Jesse, who is an investigator for a company that assists law firms. Jesse is trying to solve a mystery but never succeeds. Still, I found this part of the book interesting and Jesse likeable. The third part of the book is an interview with Jeremy, a self-obsessed writer. He talks about his family, his writing (and writer's block) and Jane, with whom he worked and sometimes slept. The interview and book ended, and all I could think was, "What the hell was that." I don't recommend the book to anyone except a masochist who has a lot of time on his hands. I can't fault the narrators but a book should have a plot and an ending - happy or sad - that ties things up. Don't look for those things here.