Book review: Simon Grey and the March of a Hundred Ghosts by Charles Kowalski

⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Before I even read the first page, the length of the title really put me off.  Why not just call it “Simon Grey” or even “Simon Grey’s march” and have the rest of the title as a sub-heading if at all?  That would, potentially draw the potential reader into thinking “Who’s Simon Grey?” or “who is he marching with, for and against?” and they might lift the book off the shelf and have a read of the blurb on the back or even the first page of the first chapter.  The title, IMNSHO, needs to hook the reader and get them asking questions about the book so that they want to buy it and immediately start reading it.

Ghost stories usually deprive me of sleep for days if not longer after I’ve read them.  The first chapter’s ghost descriptions weren’t too bad though… if the descriptions carry on like that throughout the rest of the book then I might actually get some sleep tonight lol

Up to chapter 4 now and it’s really good so far.  Could easily have done without most of the first chapter but I’m really getting into it now!

Thankfully the ghosts aren’t described like I was dreading which hopefully means I’ll be able to get to sleep tonight.  You’re a great story-teller, just needs a lot less back-story at the start of the book is all.  Sorry to keep going on about it, but that’s just the way I am with books… first impressions and all that jazz.

The joke in chapter 16 about the wall is terrible and exactly my sort of humour lol  So bad it’s good lol

Just a small point, but the age range this book is aimed at wouldn’t have a clue what inches are in chapter 16… if the author had used centimetres instead then the child reader wouldn’t have thought twice about the measurement but reading inches would make them sorta go “huh?  What on Earth are inches?” which would interrupt the smooth flow of the story.

Wow.  After an iffy start to the book that made me slightly unsure if I’d ever get to the end of it in one piece, I’m glad I did.  When the author got into his stride of what was happening, his writing had me glued to my computer until the end of each chapter when I went for a wee.  I started reading at 8.30am and it’s now 5.50pm and I don’t know where all the hours have disappeared to!