Published By: Faber
Pages: 336
Released On: 27/08/2026
Do we only value life when we are reminded that it will end?
Ghosts browsing the shops. Ghosts lingering around make-up counters. They’re not real in any way that can hurt you. But just ‘cos they can’t talk, doesn’t mean they can’t drive you mad. That’s why they return, I think. To show is things about ourselves.
Every September, the spirits of the dead return before vanishing four weeks later in a puff of green ash. They’re not real in any way that can hurt you, but their presence unearths an annual reckoning with the past. It’s hard to tell the silent spectres from ashen commuters. They linger on train platforms, they crowd buses, they take up space on your sofa. Really, the correct term is ‘people without pulses’.
This year, four strangers prepare for a visit from their dearly departed. The holiday forces them to confront all the things that haunt them, not just their dead. As suppressed truths emerge from the shadows, each of them will end Ghost Month changed in ways they never imagined.
Happy Haunting.
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Thanks to NetGalley and Faber for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This is the first of Simon’s books I’ve read, but the advanced praise and beautiful cover had me very excited to read it. But it didn’t meet all my expectations.
I struggled with it at first. There are a lot of characters and stories to keep up with and so it took me a while to get into it.
It takes a different view on things. A lot of cultures (UK especially) have a “let’s not talk about it” view on death, but then you get other cultures who celebrate death. This is something in between. It’s not celebrating the dead, if anything it’s almost the opposite, but it’s also putting it front and centre.
I believe in ghosts, always have, so the idea of ghosts visiting doesn’t frighten me, but Simon has achieved an ominous feeling around them.
I did like his way of exploring different forms of grief, how we all react to death differently, and none are better or worse than others. And it’s about helping others through loss and bereavement.
I am on the fence with this. I enjoyed it but I didn’t love it. I think it would have been better with fewer substories because at times I had completely lost who we were talking about.
It was very slow to begin with, to the point where I was considering DNF-ing it, but I had heard such positive things about it and I wanted to know how it played out. This was one of my most anticipated reads and I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good, it was just a bit…meh.
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