You’d Look Better as a Ghost Book Review: Is This Book for You?

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My Take: You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace Book Review

At first, I thought I might DNF this book because it was so absurd, but then I found myself literally laughing out loud. (Any book that can make me laugh has my vote!)

Is this book dark? Yes. Will you be horrified at what the main character does to relieve some stress? Yes. But will your curiosity make you want to keep reading? Absolutely, yes.

Claire is a cross between “The Boondock Saints” and “Dexter.” On the one hand, Claire has a sense of justice when she chooses her kills, like when she sets her sights on a man who abuses his patients in a nursing home, but on the other hand, similar to Dexter, she has some deep-seated need to do what she does.

(Although, let’s be honest, sometimes her justifications are a bit petty.)

Several things fascinated me about this book.

First, it doesn’t just show who Claire is as an adult; it also shows how she was made. (If you find Claire repulsive, wait until you meet her mother.) When I hear about psychopaths in the real world, I often wonder how they got there. This book aims to present one possibility.

The only thing I question is that while Claire definitely has a psycho mom, she has a loving father. I’ve heard therapists say that a child only needs one healthy parent to turn out okay, but maybe that’s not a guarantee.

Second, I found it fascinating how Claire labored to blend in. She’s always observing how “ordinary” people do things, and she tries to emulate them.

Third, she has an amazing ability to see through people. I don’t just mean that her kills tend to appear ghost-like to her when she sets her sights on them. She has an ability to see people for who they are despite whatever front they are trying to portray. This gives her the ability to see the evil in some people that is dwelling just below the surface. On the flip side, she can also see the good, as well.

I also loved how she would give the characters names that were a bit more descriptive than their actual names, such as Pumpkin-Head Deb and Vampire Smoker.

In terms of the plot, there’s a lot going on, and initially it isn’t clear how all the events relate to each other, but the author ties everything together in the end in a way I did not see coming. I thought the ending was very well done.

Why I Bought This Book

This is totally not the kind of book I typically read. I like a thriller every now and then, but they are definitely not my go-to.

I have to give props to Barnes & Noble for this one. They had You’d Look Better as a Ghost as one of their monthly picks in April 2024, and while I was buying some books that month, they had this one sitting there next to the cash register. The bookseller explained that B&N tries to pick books that are a bit under the radar, and this was one of them.

If you want to learn more about this book, this essay by Joanna Wallace offers a backstory about how this book came to be and how she did not set out to write a book about a serial killer.

Is This Book for You?

No book is for everyone, which is why I put together my take on who would enjoy this book and who wouldn’t.

Who This Book Is For . . .

Who This Book Is NOT For . . .

Have you read this book? I would love to hear what you thought.