Review: Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

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This is billed as a romantic comedy which is way outside my usual reading but it’s much more than that. It follows the life of Nina Dean, a single woman in her 30s living in North London and published author. The story is described on Goodreads and Amazon so I’m going to focus on how I feel about the book.

It is very funny with that dry, wry, cynical observational humor often found in British novels. For example:” …and happy that big arses had come back in fashion. So much so that I had observed with pride that we now occupied more than two categories on any given porn streaming platform.” Her observations on navigating a dating app are a hoot. She finds humor in even the most mundane things in everyday life.

I found it sad and poignant within the humor.There is Nina’s loneliness at being single in a world where everyone is married with children. She wants to be in a relationship and thinks she’s found it in Max. She and Lola, the only other single woman in her friend group, often find themselves several bottles deep into wondering where their lives have gone. Much of this book will/should make male readers uncomfortable but I saw it as a glimpse into another world and giving some understanding of that world. We see the strength of female friendship.

One aspect hit especially close to home for me. Nina’s father has Alzheimer's and the author really captures the pain of watching a loved one slipping away, the man he was disappearing as she watches.I went through that myself and I appreciate how the author is able to bring out the rawness of the experience,

As for the title, there are a couple of ways it relates to the story. You’ll see.

Ghosts is a remarkable five star read for me and not what I was expecting in a “romantic comedy”. Highly recommended.

Trigger warning for misogynists and incels: they will hate this book and rant about it on subreddits.