Secret societies, missing pop stars, history and mystery and music and revenge, The Ghost Network is a lot of things… here’s what it is not:
A dating website for restless spirits.
A public access television channel catering to the interests of the undead.
The best book you’ll read this year.
I know, I know… bad bookseller loose on the blog. Maybe I’m supposed to tell you that this book will be life changing, but it just isn’t. While it uses quite a few things that I am personally obsessed with, and seems to revolve around varying levels of obsession, I wasn’t particularly obsessed with the book itself.
So why am I writing about it? Because it is FUN. Duh.
It’s a fun book! What more do you want here as summer is slipping away? Take a break from the required reading. Deviate from that “to read” list you’ve been adding to all year. Stick your nose in a book that doesn’t ask for too much.
That’s what The Ghost Network is: a book that doesn’t ask for much. If you stick with it, Catie Disabato lays just about everything out for you by the end. Part of the novel’s charm is the pseudo-journalistic style of Disabato, or rather, the character version she has created of herself. She is telling the story in a matter of fact fashion, because she is following the facts. It is presented as a cold case followed by a number of characters, and while Disabato’s is the voice putting all the puzzle pieces together, it is full of footnotes, anecdotes, and references to interviews that try to give it the weight of reading a police report.
Throughout the investigation, Disabato clues the reader into the activities of a secret society, their motives and methods, and weaves real world history, geography, and pop culture into their intrigue. I almost feel sorry for anyone that picks this book up after 2015, because it is meant for a right now audience. The missing diva is clearly a stand in for our world’s Lady Gaga, but with a side of conspiracy, and the characters looking for her could be any number of her devoted fans, served with heaping helpings of free time, an extra order of natural detective ability, and an insatiable appetite for pop.
You’ll encounter hidden methods of public transportation, secret headquarters under attack, and terrorist plots gone wrong. You’ll see young people falling in love, sacrifice for the greater good, and vengeful back up dancers. You’ll find plenty to google when you’re done, and all set against a beautiful, snowy Chicago skyline.
Photo Credit: Seeingspots Photography
In short, The Ghost Network is a meta romp through hip culture that touches on the obsessive delights of a millennial generation and appropriates art, history, and philosophy to legitimize its snowballing, mystery plot. And it’s fun.
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