Book Review - Cecily Walters's The Ghosts of Nothing
The Ghosts of Nothing by Cecily Walters
Published by: Cecily Walters
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Kindle, 380 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
If your last name is Morrighan you're going to have a tough time of it in Nothing, a town typically topping "most haunted" lists. Nelly Morrighan knows this all too well. She has been bullied and ostracized her entire life because the town believes all their woes can be laid at the feet of the Morrighans. All her sixteen years have been spent holding in the pain, keeping her head down, not thinking about her missing mother and her institutionalized father. Because the one time she lashed out at her bullies a kid ended up in the hospital. Her one reprieve is school, far away from Nothing, even if she's saddled with a roommate from home. Until her strict grandmother changes her mind and Nelly ends up boarding at the local school which is run by the mother of the boy she hospitalized. But these changes are nothing compared to the bigger changes ahead when she uncovers a secret. A secret that has been kept from her her entire life and revealed by two otherworldly figures she encounters on the Morrighan Farm late one night, Jack and Fig. Who just happen to be fairies. And Nelly's a half-fairy. And unlike almost all offspring of these forbidden interspecies liaisons she has power. And for someone who has spent their entire life cowering, you know when you are given power you must wield it responsibly. Which is why Nelly's off to the land of fairies. It was her powers that hospitalized her bully, and it was Fig's powers that has done the same to Nelly's grandmother. They can put things right by travelling to the other realm. Which is dangerous for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is what Nelly is and the fact that Fig is a wanted criminal and that the government assumes that she is dead, which is what she will be if she is found back in fairy. But Nelly's eyes are opened there and she feels free for the first time ever, the food tastes different, she feels powerful, and no longer haunted by her name. Will she be able to hold onto this feeling when she returns to Nothing or will the past come back to haunt her?
As one of my friends said about The Ghosts of Nothing it's cinematic. He put into one word what I was struggling to say with way too many. This book reminds me of epic eighties fantasy movies, you know, cinematic. The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Return to Oz, The Secret of Nimh, movies that are part of my DNA. These films showed us wonders as well as horrors. Sure, they might have traumatized an entire generation, but I wouldn't have had my childhood any other way. Because these films made me believe in magic. The Ghosts of Nothing connected me to memories I had long since forgotten. Growing up I had a huge sugar maple in my front yard and I would spend hours under it and near it, carefully prying open the propellers while watching a very specific section of sky which, thanks to the eighties Serendipity books series, I was convinced was the only place where a pegasus could come through to our world. I saw a unicorn at the circus, so surely a pegasus would visit me! I mean, I now know that that wasn't a unicorn I saw, but there was still the magic of nature under that maple. And reading about the maple keys, the distinct turn of phrase the inhabitants of Nothing use for maple propellers, brought all these memories flooding back. It also made me wonder how the inhabitants of this town use such a fairy turn of phrase. I'm wondering if there's a lot more cross-pollination between the worlds that we will learn about in the coming books. And that again feeds into the fairy tale origins of it all. The way stories are passed down through the generations and are used to teach us lessons and morals. And the thing is, these lessons can be terrifying, and those morals, they might just mean you life. This book doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of life. The politics in particular in the fairy realm will feel eerily prescient to anyone following today's news. Which is what fairy tales are all about, telling us a story but reflecting the world around us. Dark and light. I can't wait to see how Nelly embraces her powers, but I think the real lesson she needs to take to heart is to not be too hard on herself. The world is dark and full of monsters, be the light even if other people can't see it.
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