‘Ghosts’ is the first novel from columnist Dolly Alderton.

I laughed, cried and gobbled up this book in one sitting.

‘Ghosts’ tells the tale of Nina Dean a gifted food writer, who is an unsuccessful in love as she is winning in her career. Waking on her 32nd birthday, Nina decides that the time has come to return to the dating scene with the help of a dating app. All around her, Nina is faced with reminders of time passing as her friends get married, have children, move away and yet, her love life remains empty. Ever turning to her family for support is pointless as her mum is facing a mid-life crisis and her dad is slowly vanishing into the world of dementia.
Alderton has created several true to life scenarios which we, as readers, can associate with so easily. Personally, I related to Nina’s character and, I can still see myself in her shoes – understanding her pain and confusion when facing her father’s illness. And her frustration with the world of dating!
There are two strands to the story here: Nina’s attempts to accept and support her parents and then her own attempts to find love. And, in both cases, the ‘ghosts’ of the title can easily be found. There is of course the issue of ghosting as recognised on social media but more importantly, the ghosts of our past and how those same ghosts can influence our current relationships. Our memories, old friendships, pastselves, so many ghosts in our lives that Nina slowly comes to recognise as does the reader and there is a sense of acceptance as we both identify that life is not a “box to chocolates” and does not follow the expected path. There is a refreshing sense of reality to this book.
A huge thank you to Netgalley, Penguin and Fig Tree for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for na honest review.

I'm listening to Wham! as I write this. For reasons that will soon become clear. Ghosts is journalist Dolly Alderton‘s debut novel. Despite its close-to-Halloween release, it’s not actually about spirits and ghouls, but it is a wonderfully sharp, insightful, funny and sensitive look at a woman in her 30s navigating life, while exploring the different types of loss that affects so many people.

Our lead character, Nina George Dean is a food writer. She got her middle name as Wham! were number one with (the excellent) Edge of Heaven the day she was born and her mum loved George Michael. A detail I love. Also, the exchange between Nina and her mum about this is just brilliant.

We meet Nina as she, now secure in her career, decides it’s time to embark on a new relationship. So she signs up to dating app Linx, and all the ups and downs that go with that. We get to know Nina and her friends a little better (including her ex-boyfriend who she is still close to) and explore what it means to be ghosted.

Ghosting and loss appears in several story threads through Ghosts – in romantic relationships, in friendships (especially the married vs single friend conundrum that crops up as friendship groups grow up together) and when a loved one forgets you through no fault of their own. The story of Nina’s father’s dementia is handled with real emotional impact and sensitivity, as was the way Nina comes to terms with it and processes what this means for her and her family unit.

I felt that in Nina, Dolly has captured a really authentic woman in her 30s. From her complex relationship with her mum who often acts more like a friend than a parent to her eternally-single friend Lola and their wonderful dynamic (including the Schadenfreude Shelf) to how things become strained with her childhood friend Katherine (now married and a mother) all the complexities are here.

Throughout, Dolly’s turn of phrase and the way she describes certain things really makes Ghosts a joy to read. Such as this to describe man Nina is dating:

He bought his entire personality from a cobbled side-road of boutiques in Shoreditch.

I loved Dolly’s memoir, Everything I Know About Love and Ghosts is exactly the debut novel I was hoping she would write. I could relate to a lot of the ideas here, which automatically made me feel attached to the story. Even if you don’t personally relate, the nostalgic nods and laugh-out-loud moments balanced with the more serious ghosting theme and made Ghosts such an addictive read. A fantastic contemporary fiction tale with heart and humour. A TBR addition, for sure.

I was intrigued by the title of this book and wondered what it referred to. I think it has two meanings; the ghosts of the past that still hang about in our present life as well as ghosting in the dating sense.
Nina is in her 30s and is a very successful food writer with a loving family and good friends but no partner. She meets Max who sweeps her off her feet and leads her to believe he could be the one - until he disappears and she is ghosted.
Her friends are moving on with their lives and she is still best friends with her ex boyfriend who is now getting married. During all this, her father is developing dementia which puts great pressure on her and her mother.

It's a fun book to read and keeps you interested all the way through.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Stars
Dolly Alderton writes such great coming of age stories! After reading Everything I Know About Love I immediately fell in love with Dolly Alderton and her writing! A huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC 😍

We follow a year in Ninas life, as she navigates moving into her new flat; alone, and investigates dating for the first time after a long-term relationship.

I really enjoyed Nina as a character, Her supportiveness of her fathers illness while her mother pretends it doesn’t exist, arguments with frustrating neighbours, and her amicable relationship with her ex and willingness to be open, is a refreshing take on an adult novel!

Some downfalls of the book were the time skipping, it was a bit frustrating as there was no indicator of how far in the future we had skipped or what time of year it was. I think I also would have liked a little more time with Max in the middle. But the main reason this didn’t hit the 5 star mark for me was the ending didn’t ramp up to anything important, I was expecting a deep ending like with Alderton’s first book Everything I Know About Love. Otherwise, I absolutely adored this book, I definitely recommend for fans of Adult contemporary with deep subject matter. https://www.instagram.com/p/CGF3bhFgHpk/

Oh I loved this book right from the word go. I loved the double meaning of the title and I really felt like I could relate to Nina and her struggles in life in general and in particular in the online dating world.

This book highlights the importance of having a support network around you. Whether that group is made up of family, or chose family or even a combination of both having someone you can call when a date goes badly, having someone there to be your plus one at a disastrous hen do or having someone there when you have to be there for your family is so important.

Nina also really makes me very very happy that I am not currently involved in the world on online dating. Her dating life is seriously complex and it takes her and her friends to decipher what the hell they should do next after a move has been made. It made me exhausted just reading about it and also reminded me of how infuriating it is to be ghosted in any way shape or form.

This book also touches on the issues of dementia and Alzheimers in a loved on. I think this writer did and incredible job of building that into Nina's story and this gives us the other side of ghosts, when a loved one's memories and your shared history becomes a ghosts. It comes and goes and you never know when you're going to see their true self from one minute to the next. This is an incredibly painful experience and reading about it through Nina and her life was so easy to relate to and I think Dolly Alderton really does highlight the helplessness one feels in that situation.

Aside from the pain in the book and the drama there is also a whole lot of heart and humour. I loved the shared jokes that Nina has with her friends. A particularly hilarious scene for me was where Nina is at a hen do and references the fact that fizz is only called fizz in a room full of women who secretly hate each other. I need that on a travel champagne flute now! I love the way Dolly Alderton has with words. Her writing is truly inspiring and this novel really does have it all!

Dolly Alderton has created another masterpiece. I absolutely adored this book, the author has a very unique way of making the characters come to life and the reader becomes so invested. Brilliant!

This was such a feel good read! If you enjoyed Dolly’s writing style in her memoir Everything I Know About Love then you’ll definitely enjoy this. I’ve listened/read several interviews with Dolly and regularly listen to The High Low podcast - I feel like I have a real sense of her as a character from this, and just couldn’t detach the idea that the character Nina was anyone other than Dolly herself! She’s a fun character with a great friendship group and quirky personality - I loved her relationship with her parents, and reading about Nina looking after her Dad was incredibly heartwarming.

This book made me YEARN for a pre-pandemic London - reading about these characters that are free to meet up/explore London feels like such a thing of the past! I love books set in London, especially when I discover new places to visit. I thought the characters were all perfectly modelled around people Dolly has had experiences with in real life - particularly the chapters that take place at the hen party and the wedding.

I found it so easy to pick up and whiz through. It felt like a by the numbers rom-com book at the beginning which slowly developed into something a bit different, but a great little twist at the end when it comes to the relationships between everyone. Funny, heartwarming and a great read - highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-arc copy of this book.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton - 4⭐

Summary📖- Introducing Nina George Dean, 31, a successful food writer living in a recently brought home in London however there are many ghosts in Nina's life, from the ones who ghost her online, the ghost of who her father once was, the relationship with her mother, the ghost of her past self, and also the ghost of the friendships she's grown up with who seem like they now have their life all together. The very average reality of growing up, Ghosts follows Nina on her journey to online dating, meeting Max and everything she has to deal with in between.

Review⭐️ - I loved this book, it brought together not only the reality of online dating, or the harsh reality of having a parent with dementia but how it feels when all your friends seem like they have their life together but you.. even at the age of 31 whilst having a successful career. I actually feel like I preferred this to Everything i know about love - Dolly Alderton writes with such honesty of how it feels to be ghosted in 2020 dating, the very raw truth of losing a parent to dementia, and above all the highs and the lows of growing up!

This is without a doubt a book, I'd go and buy and keep on my bookshelf - Thank you very much to @netgallery for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my review.

"'Most commonly, it is thought to have come from the idea that you are haunted by someone who vanishes, you don't get any closure. Others have said it derives from the three grey dots that appear then disappear when someone is writing you an iMessage and doesn't send it. Because it looks ghostly.'"

We follow a year in the life of 32 year old Nina, living in London and recently broken-up from only long-term boyfriend Joe, who now has new girlfriend Lucy. We meet Nina's two best friends - distracted Katherine (married new mother, another on the way, moved out to suburban Surrey ) and outgoing Lola (looking for love, dating app expert). Nina's parents are struggling: mum Nancy (younger and having a mid-life crisis - "I've changed my name to Mandy") and beloved dad, retired headteacher, Bill (mixed up, suffering with dementia). Nina decides to join the same dating app Lola uses and soon meets Max, who seems perfect...

"Being a heterosexual woman who loved men meant being a translator for their emotions, a palliative nurse for their pride and a hostage negotiator for their egos."

Written with warmth, wit and poignancy, Ghosts is about a millenial woman finding her way in life, surrounded by ghosts of people she cares about. Her dad is disappearing in front of her, her boyfriend has replaced her, her new boyfriend has vanished and friendships can struggle to survive her friends' marriage and children. I loved Nina's and Lola's 'Schadenfreude Shelf' (where they share tales of acquaintances' dating and relationships nightmares in order to feel better about their own) and how Nina is forthright and self-reliant. I despaired at how selfishly most of the men behaved. Accutely observant, funny and sad this is a wonderful debut.

"I'd noticed this was a thing that people did when they got into their thirties: they saw every personal decision you made as a direct judgement on their life."

Dolly Alderton's first work of fiction is called Ghosts - and it covers a range of different subjects - from dating, being ghosted, friends having babies and moving to the country and feeling like you are losing them.... all the kind of stuff that happens to us in our twenties, thirties, forties and often beyond. However, what I loved about this novel was the relationship between Nina and her father who is suffering from Alzheimer's... the descriptions of how he is slowly slipping away is really beautiful and how Nina deals with this is so tenderly written; heartwarming and poignant and completely absorbing. That was by far my favourite part of the novel.

Anyone who has listened to The High Low podcast or read Alderton's columns in the past, will not be surprised by the overarching theme of her debut novel. Dating mishaps, conflicts with long-time friends and career pressures are all themes we're familiar with from her previous work. From the quick breakdown of the various types of men you'll come across on dating apps to the drunken dancefloor dancing, she writes it well.

What I was surprised by, was the inclusion of a storyline centred around Nina's father's dementia. Detailing the family's struggle in dealing with the disease and the strain it puts on all included, it allows for some heart warming moments in the book.

Ghosts was an easy read that I flew through in a couple of sittings. A solid choice for any Alderton fan.

I loved Dolly’s memoir and I always listen to her podcast, so my expectation were really high and I was not disappointed. I read it in one sit. This book is equally funny and sad and tragic. It gives a very realistic picture of the cruelty and absurdity of online dating where people are treated as if they are disposable. As an ex Archway resident I absolutely adored recognising all the places she mentions. Like her other book, this is also about different types of love, a loving wife and daughter that finds it difficult to cope with a sick husband and dad, a romantic love turned intro friendship and self love as well.

Writing a review for 'Ghosts' is difficult because it's not so clear cut how I feel about the book. It wasn't consistently engaging throughout and there were moment when I thought to myself "where is this book going?" There were also parts that just weren't necessary and made the book drag on. But with that being said, I felt like the last quarter of the book was so endearing and thought provoking. The whole message of the book really comes into full force and it's empowering. Personally as a twenty-something year old, this book made me realise that you aren't gonna get your stuff together when you're 30. There's always going to be something that you struggle with and something that you're missing. The book also has these thoughtful pieces that makes it different from all the other romance-related books that I've read. I think one of the reasons why this book didn't really tune in with me is because it's probably for a slightly older audience than myself. Reading this definitely made me think of all my 'older sisters' out there and how much it rings true to them.

Overall, 'Ghosts' is a nice thought provoking read. I think if I read this in a few years time, it would probably mean a lot more to me than now.

Reading this book makes you feel as though you're having a good catch up with your best friend. It's very relatable, very well observed (Dolly Alderton is the queen of this!), heartwarming and honest. It's a modern story all about trying to navigate life in your 30s.
Nina is a successful food writer who after her 32nd birthday decides to join an online dating site. She is one of the last of her friends to be single and feels a little bit as though she is getting left behind. She meets Max, who on their first date, tells her he is going to marry her.
The cover and blurb of this book may have you believe it is going to be a fluffy chick lit (nothing wrong with that, I love fluffy chick lit) but this story has a lot of hidden depths.
I would urge anyone in their 30s to pick this book up and give it a read.

Ghosts was one of my most anticipated releases for 2020, I've followed author Dolly Alderton for a few years through her podcasts and non-fiction writing. Ghosts is her first fiction novel and I was so pleased to get my hands on an early copy.

Nina is in her early thirties and lives in London, at the beginning of the book she's just been convinced to give dating app 'Linx' a go by best friend and serial app user Lola. She quickly matches with Max and after their first date can't seem to believe her luck that she's landed such an ideal man. Over the next few weeks their relationship goes from strength to strength then suddenly Max disappears, initially claiming to be busy with work which turns to a string of texts from Nina which aren't getting replied to. 

I found the character of Nina to be a little difficult to relate to at times but I'm not entirely sure I should have related to her; Nina is in her early thirties, self-employed, single and living alone in London. Personally I'm approaching thirty, but I'm married, have never really lived alone or worked for myself.   This did make the book slightly more difficult to get into at first but looking back on it that was my own expectations getting in the way - Nina is a really well written, believable character with all the depth and flaws a good protagonist should have.

On the face of it this is a novel about dating in your thirties but I thought it was so much more than just another rom-com. There are some really funny parts to this, including a super organised hen do, her mother's seemingly random want to change her first name and a difficult downstairs neighbour as well as some very tender, emotional moments with Nina's aging father who's battling dementia.

I would like to thank #NetGalley and #FigTree for an advanced reader copy of #Ghosts in exchange for an open and honest review, I have to say I loved this book and read it in one go, I could not put it down. This is not a book I would usually read but I was engaged from start to finish. Nina George Dean splits from her partner and starts using a dating app.. This book deals with the man she meets ghosting her and also the change in her relationships as she faces her 30''s. This book is extremely well written and all of the characters are relatable.. This book also shows the difficulties in coming to terms with dementia showing Nina's father's decline.

Nina George Dean is in her 30s, she has her own flat and a career she loves as a food writer and has been inactively single for two years since her and Joe (who she is still friends with) broke up. All of her friends with the exception of Lola are married/engaged. She’s ready to start dating again so downloads a dating app where she meets Max, they get on like a house on fire and the relationship is very intense from the start then after three months Max vanishes ………

The books takes you through a year in Nina’s life not just about the ghosting from Max but also her changing relationships with the people in her life, her longtime friend Katherine, her parents as her dad develops dementia and even her awkward neighbour Angelo.

The writers observations of dating apps are both humorous and a bit grim and she writes sensitively about the effects dementia can have on the whole family.

I thought this was a well written book, funny in parts and a reminder that everyone has their own internal struggles even if they don’t outwardly show it.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for the ARC

I had read Dolly Alderton's EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE, in which I found a lot to enjoy and was interested in her fiction debut, GHOSTS, despite knowing very little about it.

This is, what I can assume, quite thinly-veiled fiction. Nina Dean is a 32-year-old, still friends with her ex that she dated for seven years, who finds herself in a new relationship with Max, whilst struggling with issues with her family and friends.

I found myself engaged for the most part and read the book quite quickly. However it never veers out of chick lit for me, nor does it have a lot to say about "ghosting". Nina is an interesting, engaging character but most of the other characters are one-dimensional ciphers serving Nina's purposes without any sort of interesting dimension. I would have loved to see Nina break out of the cliches of someone in their early 30s. Despite this, Alderton can definitely write and injects a lot of humour into the book. I just wish she had taken more risks.

Thanks to NetGalley, Fig Tree and Dolly Alderton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ghosts tells the story of Nina Dean, an early thirties food writer navigating dating life in London, changing friendships and ageing parents. This book is an honest look at the pressures we place on ourselves and the intricate ways in which our lives are so heavily affected by those close to us.
I absolutely adored this book and the way the text flowed so easily despite covering some heavy topics and at times being the flowery side of language. At no point did it seem inaccessible, and the story itself was so deeply relatable. I found myself completely lost in Nina's life and couldn't put the book down for wanting to find out what would happen next.
I was deeply impressed by Dolly's debut novel and look forward to further work from her!

I didn’t just like this book - I loved it and hard to put down and switch the light off!
The whole storyline is cleverly well observed, funny, reflective and sad all at the same time.
Nina is the main protagonist -
navigating life with online dating and friendships (all of who at differing stages of their lives) in her early thirties whilst also dealing with aging parents, one of whom is struggling with dementia and slipping through her fingers
A thoroughly enjoyable humorous but poignant read.
Read it - you will not be disappointed!!