Ghost Eaters

A Novel

By: Clay McLeod Chapman

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

A terrifying supernatural audiobook that explores ghosts, grief, and god complexes

Ever since their on-again, off-again college romance, Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with charismatic but reckless Silas, who has been chasing the next big high since graduation. When he texts her to spring him out of rehab, she knows enough is enough. She is ready to start a career, make new friends, and meet a great guy—even if that means cutting Silas off. But when Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart.

When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts everywhere from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she has opened?

With propulsive momentum, bone-chilling scares, and dark meditations on the weight of history, this Southern horror will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.

©2022 Clay McLeod Chapman (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Critic reviews

Tor Nightfire Pick

Publishers Weekly Pick

BookRiot Pick 2022

LibraryReads Pick

Indie Next Recommendation

unexpected!

what a great book! it was not what I thought and I loved it! I listened to the whole book in a day and a half. I couldn't get enough.

utterly gut-wrenching.

So real to me that I took a week and four other interspersed books to finish it. As a horror story, this is exceptionally visceral and terrify. This is a good thing. As a story about addiction, of any kind, it is a treatise on sorrow, co-dependency and the power of self-love. The blending of these two is brilliantly done.

The narrator kept the desperation front and center and yet you can feel how rational the characters think that they are behaving.

Still crying. This is a good thing too.

excellent depiction of addiction

the story is a harrowing depiction of addiction with a welcome supernatural edge to it! I wanted to bring special attention to the narration as well, it is fantastic!

Unsure of the bad reviews

I hesitated reading this because of the mediocre score and some of the bad reviews. However, I was drawn to the book's premise of intertwining horror and addiction, so I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did! I absolutely LOVE this book and have added it to my favorites, and will likely listen to it again. Addiction is a real-life horror story of its own, and anyone touched by addiction personally, whether directly or indirectly, will be haunted by this book.

There were some common themes in the bad reviews, which I want to address below.

1. The main character is unlikeable - I don't think this is true. This is a person struggling with addiction that is co-dependent with another addict. Codependency is unhealthy, and therefore reading a codependent relationship should feel frustrating. The book does a good job of making you feel this relationship dynamic IMO.
2. Purple Prose - Personally, it didn't bother me. I didn't find it unnecessarily wordy.
3. It's not a horror story but a story of addiction - I beg to differ. I think this story hits the sweet spot of both horror and addiction. The author did a good job of making you feel both the dread and feelings of entrapment experienced by those living with addiction. At the same time, some scenes were gross and gave you the "ick" factor.

not what I thought

struggled to get into it. Not what I thought the book was going to be about. this is more of a psychological thriller and doesn't have much action. you spend most of the time trying to figure out if it's all in her head. the narrator's performance was good.

Strange! That went off the rails quickly…

This book was not what I expected as far as a ghost story. I almost abandoned it but had already invested too much time in the book.
It was a true depiction of how addiction can take over a person’s world.

wanna get haunted?

I know I am now and I'll never look at mushrooms the same again. A truly poignant book about love, loss, addiction, and grief. I've enjoyed everything I've ever read by Clay but this one is on another level. prepare for gut punch after gut punch when you get towards the end. A masterpiece.

This is about the hell that accompanies drug addiction

This story wasn’t really about ghosts; it was all about the hell that accompanies drug addiction, with a smidge of “White Privilege” lamentations sprinkled throughout like spores riding an air current through a crack house. Don’t waste your time or your Audible credit unless you’re looking for encouragement to escape your addiction(s) or help a loved one do the same.

Gross but good

It's got gross moments. Like a lot of them. But it is a good story. Very creepy.

Cool concept, lackluster writing

I wanted to like this but the writing was just so heavy-handed. There was lots of purple prose and way too much internal dialogue. To me, Erin felt like a more modern version of Bella from Twilight - just a girl obsessed with a guy for some reason. I suspect this wouldn't pass the Bechtel test...