In this creepy little book, our narrator and main character is Silvie, a seventeen year old girl. Her father is a history enthusiast and so their family has gone to join an anthropology course out in the wilds of Britain; they’re going to live in an Iron Age setting for two weeks and hopefully come to understand their ancestors and their lives better. We quickly discover that Silvie’s dad is already abusive, both verbally and physically, and the isolated, retrograde environment soon begins to play to his worst tendencies. And suddenly he’s taking all this much, much too seriously and Silvie seems to be the only one to see it. This book is less than a hundred-and-fifty pages and it’s a really quick read. Moss gets Silvie’s voice exactly right, a sardonic kind of teenage sass that also let’s us see the vulnerability and fear that she lives with every day. Around the mid-point of the book, the dread really sets in as you realize that things are building toward something bad, toward something maybe really bad, happening and the book becomes incredibly tense. Moss really gets the creepy atmosphere right; while there is no overt supernatural element in this book, Moss still makes you feel like the distance between past and present is growing thin, that there is some kind of queasy ancient force lurking in these woods. I think, for the most part, that Moss was going for something really specific here and I think she absolutely nailed it. At the end of the day, what this book communicates is the experience of living with an abuser. Moss gets us right inside Silvie’s fear and anxiety, her paranoia and dread, her knowledge, that most of the other characters don’t have, that her father is a very dangerous man. Moss really sketches the Dad beautifully as well; he’s a great character and Moss allows us to see him, at times, as the man he is when he’s right in the head, the man who took Silvie to museums, taught her about nature and is, at a couple of really heart-breaking moments, filled with pride and love for her. But none of this takes away from the fact that’s quite frightening at other times. Molly, a college student along for the trip, is also a really great character. I could very easily see this getting turned into a really wonderful small horror film. It really just lets the dread and atmosphere seep into your bones. Slow-moving as the plot is, it’s a page-turner. The ending, I think, will be divisive. I think it’s pretty perfect, honestly. Ghost Wall is a quick, brilliantly written & smart little novel that has a lot on its mind and a powerful emotional experience to deliver. 4 stars.
tl;dr – slim novel is part thriller, part character study as an Iron Age re-enactment vacation starts to turn uncomfortable & dangerous; quick read has a lot on its mind & serious emotional punch. 4 stars.