Dolly Alderton’s debut novel Ghosts is everything I wanted it to be, and more. It focuses on the life of Nina George Dean, a woman in her thirties who is a hugely successful food writer. After being single for two years, she is ready to date again, and that’s when she meets Max who tells her on their first date that he will marry her. She used to have very close and fun friendships until many gradually left her behind and even re-located to the suburbs, because she was both not married and without children, unlike them. Alongside this, her father who she is very close to is gradually vanishing into dementia, and her mother is understandably having trouble dealing with this. All of these aspects of her past and present, and more, form ghosts that Nina must both confront and accept; you will want to follow Nina as she attempts to do just this.

All of the characters in the novel were perfectly described by Alderton. Many were especially enjoyable to read, including the main protagonist Nina, as well as one of her best friends, Lola. They were also very realistic, and this allowed me to form strong attachments to them as the narrative progressed, which for me is an indicator of a great book. Alderton also tackled really important themes and issues in a very sensitive and engaging way, including the pressures of women to have children and get married in order to be accepted, the struggle of dealing with a loved one that has an illness, as well as other contemporary issues that come with the rise of technology, including the world of online dating and the concept of ‘ghosting’. The polysemic nature of ghosts and the way this concept was utilised in the book for symbolic reasons really added an extra layer to the narrative itself. This book really did grip me and I started by reading it every night, but as the narrative progressed, I eventually had a full session to just finish the book because I had to find out what happened; I was truly invested in all of the characters and the story itself.

I absolutely loved reading this relatable, emotional, humorous and entertaining book. I would hugely recommend you give it a read for yourself!

I would like to thank Fig Tree, Penguin and NetGalley for my copy of the book, in exchange for my honest review.

I was so excited to read this book. I'm a huge fan of Dolly Alderton as a person, and a huge fan of her writing. I loved her first book (non-fiction), and couldn't wait to read her first fiction book. It was actually very high up on my anticipated reads of 2020. Therefore I was incredibly grateful to receive an advanced-reader-copy for an honest review.

So, this book was definitely a slow burn. I was enjoying it, but felt like it was just plodding along. It didn't help that I took big breaks between picking up the book again. It really helped when I could read big chunks at a time.

This book is truly in keeping with Alderton's previous writings. It was incredibly relatable, and very easy to read. I just love how easy she makes writing look!!! Just so laid back and easy!

The plot, and the characters were incredibly relatable to me - particularly as I feel like I'm a similar stage in life as the main protagonist, Nina. I could really follow it and was immediately zoomed in on Nina, and I felt empathetic towards her straight away.
I don't feel there was much plot, it was more character focused than plot based. Not usually something I enjoy.

I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much if I wasn't in a similar position to the character of Nina, so I do feel like this book will divide opinion.

Overall, I wasn't a huge lover of the actual plot, but once again I am so impressed and in awe of Dolly Alderton's writing style! I will 100% read her next venture!

Dolly Alderton. Fig Tree (15/10/2020) ISBN 9780241434543

Nina George Dean is a 32 year-old cookery book writer with a wannabe lifestyle for any Gen Y. Born when Wham! was hitting number one with "Edge of Heaven", Nina is the quintessential It girl. She has a glam job, her own flat and no ties. But she's not all that happy.

The book begins on the day of Nina's 32nd birthday. Her friends flood WhatsApp with quirky messages. She swims in the Ladies' Pond. She listens to George Michael. She lolls in the bath and thinks about how times have changed. She goes for birthday drinks. She comes home. Alone. And that night, she makes a move which will dominate the rest of her story. She downloads a dating app. And so begins the series of eponymous ghosts in Nina's life.

The past events of her life clamour for attention, not only 'Edge of Heaven', but there's the place in London where she grew up and the memory of her former boyfriend. Her fading friendships, her Dad's Alzheimer-affected memory and her mother's new eccentricities all confound Nina's need to find control. When the superbly shaggable Max, a near-perfect incarnation of boyfriend material, responds positively to her profile, Nina feels a frisson of excitement in her otherwise uninspiring existence. But even he 'ghosts' her, for reasons familiar to many on the online dating circuit.

Nina begins the story as an anti-hero. She is negative and unsettled. She is a cookery writer, but rarely engages with food. She maintains ties with an unsuitable ex. She begrudges her friends-with-kids their family woes. She has poorly resolved neighbour issues. I found myself wondering if I should spend my reading time hanging out with her? But I powered through, because the fact of the matter is that Dolly Alderton is a near-perfect writer. She offers the right blend of careful plotting, engaging secondary characters and enough empathy to keep you reading. There's wry humour here too, the kind you would expect from Dolly whose column in the Times offers frank and honest reflections on contemporary issues with a sassy hair toss and a wink.

The many loose ties Dolly introduces to us, over the course of the novel, morph and coalesce into a satisfying Nina-verse. I particularly enjoyed the explanation of the 'Edge of Heaven' reference. Nina clings to it like the last plank on a lifeboat ('Since I can remember, an annual tradition was playing it as loud as possible as soon as I woke up'). It's a shred of normalcy in her decaying family. But we find that what her mother had led her to believe wasn't true. It wasn't number one when she was born, it has too-saucy meaning for her childhood self, but, throwing Nina a character lifeline, Dolly allows Nina to appreciate it any way. It is her middle name after all! So with stoic forgiveness, the character of Nina grows. Ahhh. Very nice.

I was disappointed there wasn't more cooking in the book. When I settled down to read it I thought great! This is going to have lots of foodie intel the way Nora Ephron did in Heartburn. Nina doesn't come to discuss food until she is experimenting with food and memory for her dad. Bless her, it doesn't turn out the way she wanted. But hooray for Dolly, she shows deft sleight of hand, again putting her character in a no-win situation which actually humanises her earlier negative traits. I also didn't understand her relationship with the Italian neighbour, but hey, life's funny sometimes.

The whole dating app scenario is fascinating and well-researched. Many of us will be able to chime with Nina's experiences and give a sisterly nod to her misfortune. I absolutely loved the ending, I won't spoil it here, but it is worthy of its own diva moment and one for the sisterhood.

Ghosts had the sassy schadenfreude of So Happy It Hurts by Anneliese Mackintosh, the sensitive insight of Cecilia Ahern and Jojo Moyes, and all the weight and merit of Elena Ferrante's The Lying Life of Adults.

Read it if you get a chance, you won't be disappointed.

Pandemic-induced brain-fog resulted in my excitedly-looking forward to what I’d very literally interpreted to be not only Dolly’s first novel, but her first foray into horror writing, and it was only upon actually reading the book’s blurb that I realised it was a tale of ghosts in the 2020 sense rather than the gothic fantasy I’d attempted to imagine. In the same manner as her smash hit ‘Everything I Know About Love’, in perhaps what’s becoming a hallmark of Alderton’s writing, the story’s scope unfolds to beyond the title, to not just cover literal ghosting – the experience of going sudden cold turkey on those you’d been in a relationship with – but about past connections that nostalgically haunt our thoughts, or those who are fading from view before our eyes. Ghosts is utterly glorious, and contains one of the finest fictional first dates ever committed to paper, a splendid concept called the ‘Schadenfreude Shelf’ that you’ll encourage your friends to adopt immediately, and a truly yelp-out-loud perfectly rendered account of surviving the horrors of a hen weekend. Hugely, whole-heartedly recommended.

Cambridge Edition Book Club 'Autumn Reads' October 2020 (link to follow)

This is definitely one of the funniest books I have read this year. Dolly Alderton is back and she has done it like nobody else, proving that she is one of the most important millennial voices of the moment, writing about topics that we can all relate to and understand.

Nina represents the stereotype of anyone (not just a girl) in their 30s, but that's what makes this book so special and actual. London is described in a way that makes you love it even more and, having read this book while abroad, it has made me feel like I was there.

Nina's relationship with her parents makes you open your eyes and it is during those paragraphs that Dolly makes you think the most. Nina's father has made me laugh and cry at the same time.

I have enjoyed Ghosts, and it will be my most gifted and recommended book when it's out.

I really loved this, I expected to enjoy it but I was surprised how brilliant it was. Endlessly relatable, clever and entertaining. Will be pushing this on all my friends in their mid-late 20s and 30s

This book is FAB! Nina is just like so many of us. Battling her way through her 30's still dealing with friendship, love life and family problems. Alderton has written this book with so much accuracy. I found myself laughing through so much of it and recognising myself in Nina's position. The awful hen parties that no one wants to go to, and visiting friends who have moved out of London, had children and you are the one to go and see them! I was worried when I realised the new Alderton book was fictional after loving Everything I Know About Love so much, but was so happy to find that Alderton was still providing us with the LOLs and all so true to real life!

Nina has just bought her own flat in London, she is enjoying her life as a good author and about to start writing her third cook book, one night she downloads a dating app and after a few weeks meets Max, things are going well until Max starts ignoring Nina.

A good book that kept me interested.

Ghosts is the story of a year in the life of Nina Dean, a 32 year old food writer from London. Nina is at <i>that</I> age where most of her friends are married, having babies and leaving London for leafy commuter towns with bigger houses and better schools. Nina on the other hand has just joined a dating app on the recommendation of her Only Single Friend Lola. And here begins what she describes as the strangest year of her life.

I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to after reading the first chapter. At first it seemed like Nina was just a stereotype of a single woman in her early thirties. To some extent she is, and plenty of the usual cliches about millennials are on display here, but as the book went on Nina became a far more interesting and developed character and I found myself really hoping that things would work out well for her. The subplot involving her mum and dad was touching and I loved the exploration of the different relationships Nina had with each parent.

The book is enjoyable and easy to read, I’d say it’s a perfect beach read but given the current state of the world I imagine there’s not much call for holiday reading. One little complaint is that I really disliked the resolution of the plot involving Angelo. It wasn’t believable in the slightest and I actually felt very uncomfortable with the idea that a woman would suddenly find a man who had been intimidating and threatening her for months to be irresistible.

I read another of Dolly’s books a few months ago, "Everything I Know About Love", and enjoyed it despite being slightly too old and not in the ‘single and ready to mingle’ demographic she seems to target. That didn’t sound like the compliment I thought it would, if I’m honest.

“Ghosts” is her first fiction novel, and we meet the main character on the first page – Nina George Dean. The plot has echoes of "Olive" in that, like Olive, Nina and her long term boyfriend have just separated and all her friends seem to have paired off and settled down, except one. For me, this is where the similarity ends – Nina is warm and relatable, she never berates her friends for having children but instead asks that her friends treat her life with respect and realise that she is tired too, she also needs a vent sometimes and actually, it is okay not to be perfect all of the time.

Nina is looking for someone to date, to have fun with, but she’s also dealing with some large life admin stuff too – writing her new cookbook, her aging parents and the realisation that as an only child, she really doesn’t have much in the way of family.

Ghosts felt like nostalgia, for me. A lot of the book was about visiting familiar places and going to memories – favourite desserts, school trips – endless summer days where all you do is play and climb trees and no adults ever seemed to miss you or wonder what you were doing. I think the best books, without trying to be narcissistic but perhaps failing, are ones which make you think about yourself in that position. What would you do, faced with a whale that wouldn’t leave you alone? What if you were a monstrous creation that terrified everyone but had more heart than all of them put together? What would I do if I were Nina? Would I pursue the ghost of the man who’s already moved on but is sweetly trying to include me in his new life? The matches on dating apps that come to nothing, that fizzle out after the first “I like pizza too” exchange of pleasantries? I mean, who doesn’t like pizza?

I liked all of the characters – they were well thought out and most crucially for me, distinct from one another. I could tell when Katherine was talking or if it was Lola. Nina’s inner monologue was recognisable – calm, sensible and still human and friendly. She looks out for people and gets annoyed when her neighbour is being anti-social. She talks about her problems with her friends and listens to theirs.
I’d go for a drink with Nina, and her friends too.

It’s out October 15th – recommended as an easy read with some thoughtful weight behind it.

Thanks for the ARC as usual, Fig Tree/Penguin and Netgalley.

I've read a few books like this recently and this is probably the best of the lot. It follows Nina, a 32 year old food writer who lives in London. She's really successful and has a book published and one that's about to be. She even bought her own flat in London which is kinda awesome. So you can see why I wasn't particularly sympathetic to her single-ness.

What did evoke empathy was Nina's father who was slowly losing his memories. Alzheimer's is awful and I think Dolly did a really good job at describing the effects it can have on a family -particularly Dolly and her Mum. The family relationships and growth was done really well and I kinda wish this had been the focus of the book.

The dating side did make me laugh in places. The themes are generally around men being hopeless, ghosting women, and still being kids in their thirties. For me, there weren't any solid friendships in Nina's life (her friend Katherine is self-absorbed, her friend Lola ditches her for a new boyfriend immediately). It didn't really have a satisfying ending either.

Glad I read this book, but starting to realise that these books about middle class white women with practically no diversity are not my thing. I love that feminism is so prominent in fiction now, but I also wish it was more inter-sectional.

I’m just going to say it. I LOVED GHOSTS.

Now with that out of the way let me tell you why. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is a story of modern dating. The trials and tribulations, the changes that have taken place over the past few years, the advancement of online dating. But it is also much more than that. It is a story of changing relationships - how life can come between even the best friends. It is the developing and every changing story of family dynamics. But, again, it is much more than that. It is a story of independence.

It was so multilayered and all in 336 pages.

The novel went from happy to sad back to happy in warp speed. You are really taken on a journey with protagonist Nina Dean. For me, the most heartwarming and heartbreaking moments were the scenes with her father. The love and respect that she has for him seemed to be paralleled in the desire to find a partner who lived up to his standard.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton was such a joy to read. It is one of my favourite reads of 2020 and I cannot wait to see what Alderton produces next.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is available now.

For more information regarding Dolly Alderton (@dollyalderton) please visit linkt.ree/dollyalderton.

For more information regarding Penguin (@PenguinUKBooks) please visit www.penguin.co.uk.

I, like many, am a big fan of Dolly’s writing (and everything else she does) so I was super excited to get to read an Advanced Readers Copy.

Dolly’s first novel explores modern day relationships, nostalgia and the importance of friendship.
In Ghosts we follow Nina, a thirty something food writer who just bought her own flat and is pretty content with her life. When she starts online dating after being single for a while she meets Max who tells her he’s going to marry her on their first date.
Pretty promising, right? That’s until Max ghosts her and completely disappears.

Dolly’s writing is, as always, exquisite, relatable and charming – she perfectly observes what it’s like to be a millennial in todays world and puts it onto paper. Unfortunately her writing was one of the only things that stood out to me in this book which pains me to say. The plot and ending was average and lacked depth in my eyes. Saying that, I did really enjoy the story line following Nina’s father who struggles with dementia. It’s not something I’ve ever read about and you can tell a lot of research has gone into portraying the topic properly.
Although this particular book wasn’t my favourite I will continue to read absolutely everything she puts out in the future – still love u Dolly!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Fig Tree for the arc!

When emmie realised her balloon with secret message in side she never expected lucas to find but emmie like lucas but all not well things with her and lucas.

Thanks so much for letting me having the early release and read this book.

Excellent read, i thoroughly enjoyed this book the storyline can be so relatable as ghosting happens regularly in a younger persons life particularly (speaking from experience). I felt they could of been more to the ending with regards to what happened to the blokes who ghosted the women.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC. I am a big fan of Dolly Alderton, listening to her podcasts over lockdown saved my sanity. I liked how real and in tune with life this narrative is, Nina, a thirty something year old, navigates life as relationships and people change around her. Nina’s father has dementia, her mother is reinventing herself, and for me, this was the most poignant relationship, the relationship between a daughter and her parents, Dolly Alderton allows humour to shine within these moments and shares Nina’s past and present love life,

I really enjoyed this book!

The central character is Nina, who I liked (despite being significantly older than her and with very different life experiences).  The book looks at her romantic entanglements - but also her relationships with others, her friends, parents, neighbours - and how they all intertwine. 

I almost feel like the relationships were dealt with in pairs:

Nina's Mum (Nancy / Mandy) and her Dad:  it was clear Nina was a Daddy's girl, and her relationship with her Mum is more 'complicated' and I liked how this progressed during the book.  Nina's Dad's dementia gets worse and worse - but was well written and true to life experiences of this horrible disease. 

Katherine and Lola: these are Nina's friends - but from different life stages.  Katherine is a smug married, whilst Lola is on a permanent quest for love.  Their personal circumstances bring different strains to their relationships with Nina - and I think were written really well.

Max and Joe: Max is Nina's new boyfriend and the 'leading man' of the book - whilst Joe is her long term ex who is still a best friend.  The first interaction between them was cringingly well written!  And Nina on Joe's new fiancée's hen weekend was also painfully good. 

Her upstairs and downstairs neighbours:  Lovely, slightly deaf older lady up above; grumpy, aggressive, scary Italian man down below. 

Whilst the 'Ghosts' of the title could be the current vocab of romantic partners who suddenly cut you off with no explanation, it's clear Nina's Dad is also encountering his own ghosts as he suffers with dementia.

Nina is quick witted, smart, sassy and independent and a great leading lady - and the book was a rollercoaster of emotions - sometimes I was laughing out loud, other  times having a little weep. 

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for my advance review copy.  Ghosts is out in October 2020 and can be pre ordered now.

Super grateful for Penguin Fig Tree for letting me have a preview copy of this book!

I, like many, love the work of Dolly Alderton so was absolutely thrilled to be allowed to review it before publication day. I presumed, wrongly but so beautifully, that this would be a standard chick-lit, rom-com book that i would adore but alas, it was much more. With a beautiful, authentic lead character i could get to grips with and root for from the get go, as well as a variety of multiple narratives intertwined and including a varirety of other characters who i was engaged with, Ghosts was a heartwarming, emotionally raw read about dating as you grow up and in the modern digitally focused world. The quirky writing style combined with the honesty really made me feel for many of the characters all while having a good build up to the second part of the book where I feel i could really relate to the conversations that Nina had with Max. I did really enjoy this read, but i wish the ending had more clarity, as i just felt a lot happened in the last 50 pages that almost were unexplained or unnecessary (such as the Angelo shift in storyline) but i can forgive that for the rest of the book i thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely recommend

It was easy to 'buy into' the central character, who I became very protective of. I wanted it to all work out for her, and at times I wanted to shake her. She was believable, someone we all know, maybe our younger selves. The title has multiple meanings. We all have ghosts in our lives - people who used to be part of our lives but no longer are, loved relatives who have passed away, then there are those who through illness are slipping away from us, and there is the modern phenomenon of 'ghosting' someone. All these meanings have their place in this tale of relationships.
I received an advance copy in return for an honest review, which this is.

A good book, featuring discussions around what it is to be single and date in your 30s, and how friendships and relationships change.