Release Date: 01/06/15
Source: ARC
Published by: Roaring Book Press

The Ghosts of Heaven - Marcus Sedgwick | Goodreads

A bold, genre-bending epic that chronicles madness, obsession, and creation, from the Paleolithic era through the Witch Hunts and into the space-bound future.

Four linked stories boldly chronicle madness, obsession, and creation through the ages. Beginning with the cave-drawings of a young girl on the brink of creating the earliest form of writing, Sedgwick traverses history, plunging into the seventeenth century witch hunts and a 1920s insane asylum where a mad poet's obsession with spirals seems to be about to unhinge the world of the doctor trying to save him. Sedgwick moves beyond the boundaries of historical fiction and into the future in the book's final section, set upon a spaceship voyaging to settle another world for the first time. Merging Sedgwick's gift for suspense with science- and historical-fiction, Ghosts of Heaven is a tale is worthy of intense obsession.

The first thing that I should warn you about: I don't think that I fully understood this book nor would I say that it is a Christina book. I'd keep these considerations in mind while reading the review below. I read and enjoyed She Is Not Invisible, but I also knew that I hadn't understood everything there either. This book is much more epic in scope than She Is Not Invisible, yet I think that is why my experience with The Ghosts of Heaven differed slightly from that with She Is Not Invisible.

This book is divided into four quarters: "Whispers in the Dark," "The Witch in the Water," "The Easiest Room in Hell," and "The Song of Destiny." As Marcus Sedgwick explains in his introduction, all four quarters are interconnected with spirals, the meaning of which is frequently questioned. This is one of those books that makes me think: idea, character, or plot/world? What drives the narratives that you most enjoy? For me, it's character. This book, to me, seems more about the idea.Several characters, several plotlines -- but it's so hard to care about every one of those plot lines and characters, and for someone who is a character oriented reader... well, that's quite simply why Laurel's journey in She Is Not Invisible was much easier for me to sympathize with. Most of the time I agree with Kirkus Reviews on how I feel about a book, but idea-books (at least) seem to be literarily very well received even if they're not as easy, for me, to read as other books are. Anywho.

"Whispers in the Dark" is a prehistoric tale of survival and the search for self-identity focusing on a girl and her tribe in sparsely told verse. I don't generally like verse - I find it hard to read, harder to feel involved in the story - but I actually really liked this story since it had the traditional elements of a young adult novel: a girl maturing (her period), a choosing sort of ceremony (what future lies ahead), threats to her identity, conflicts between wants and needs (learning about the magic her elder uses and doing the job that she was assigned), etc. But, as much as I enjoyed the story, I couldn't identify with the girl. It's amazing how a simple thing like a name can affect your reading experience so much yet undoubtedly naming the girl would not have fit with some of the prehistoric feel and would have limited some of the scope.

"The Witch in the Water" - well, it's obvious what this is about, no? Reminded me of The Crucible, but with more focus on the old New England type village and a changing third person past perspective. I can't talk about this one fairly; it was my least favorite of them all, and that has nothing to do with how Marcus Sedgwick wrote the story. I cannot tolerate stories about sexist times, like accusing a girl of witchcraft just because you can. Because she didn't return your affections, or she is the object of affection from someone you like, etc. Or you're a priest set on "rooting out evil." BLERGH NO. I'm pretty sure my hatred of this story type bled into me not being able to notice as much about the spiral pattern here too.

"The Easiest Room in Hell" - through the eyes of the new assistant superintendent at an asylum, we learn about a poet who knows more than he's letting on about everything. The last two stories were my favorites because things started to get creepy. The first person perspective of this allowed for me to care about the superintendent even as I was horrified again by the story type (the way they treated patients in asylums back in the day! a story type that I do not like to read any more than I do of witch trials). As the superintendent grew fascinated with the poet, so did I. If nothing else, read this story and the last story. Marcus Sedgwick also begins to tie all the spiral patterns together and so through this story, I started to care more about the idea of the spiral pattern. Plus the horror and suspense helped.

"The Song of Destiny" - Told in third person present tense, it focuses on Bowman, one of the sentinels who act as guardians of the 500 passengers headed to colonize another world. There's a lot of fascinating world-building here and this lends the book its science fiction flair. Clearly Marcus Sedgwick did research on space travel and astrophysics, etc. Once you get past the first chapter, the plot of the story picks up; and this story probably has the most shocking revelations of all four plus the final threading together of what all the spirals mean.

The spiral is life. The spirals are thought-provoking. I probably will not be able to look at a spiral in the same way after reading this book. I also greatly admire how Marcus Sedgwick switched writing styles and PoVs throughout the book, and with great finesse too. There's no doubt that this is a well-written novel. If you're looking for something more literary oriented and different from other YA that you've read because of its genre-defying epic scope, you've found your treasure here.

This is beautiful literary fiction. My favorite part was the writing style. I've never read anything by Marcus Sedgwick, but I know that I'll be reading something of his in the future. There was a faint undertone of dry humor throughout Laureth's perspective that made some of the philosophical elements and less believable plot elements easier to read. It was smooth. So smooth and easy and enjoyable to read. The chapters were short and taut, seamlessly incorporating Laureth's memories of her father with her current reality and building on the mystery in such a way as to render the plot twists unpredictable. And I loved all the little inside jokes slyly inserted for his fans (a running joke on Laureth's father who is famous for writing funny stories and whose attempt with darker stuff wasn't as accepted; Sedgwick poking fun at the reception this novel might get?) and the jokes about writers and their inspiration process.

My second favorite part was Laureth's perspective. Ever since I read this article, I've wanted to read something in YA that portrays that sort of reality accurately. How many YA novels feature blind characters and how many don't fall into some sort of trope? Sedgwick boldly tackles the challenge of writing from a blind teen's perspective and doesn't fall into the trope traps about magical cures or seeing-but-not-seeing. Laureth's everyday realities reflect little things that I've never given much thought to myself because of my privilege and her perspective challenges some of the things we just assume about others. Her perspective always felt authentic to me. Laureth was a wonderful heroine to follow; bold, kind, determined, brave. Brave especially because of her efforts to ensure that she's not invisible to the world, but appears to be a self-confident, assured teen despite her fears.

And my third favorite part was the family unit. I've read a lot of novels recently featuring the portrayal of larger-than-life figures who transition into fallen hero types, but Sedgwick takes that portrayal and makes it subtler. It's not really that Laureth's dad is so larger-than-life that he's inaccessible to her, but that he's still a mystery, despite Laureth filtering his emails for him and listening to his new writing ideas and living with him. A mystery in the way that all people, even parents, are mysteries. The plot is a great metaphor for that. I loved the characterization of Laureth's father - his quirky writer habits and fixation on coincidences and lifestyle choices - and the characterization of Laureth's brother, Benjamin, who might be one of the most adorable seven-year-olds in YA. You get a lot of portrayals of little siblings in YA but not all reach that level of realism. Benjamin is definitely his own character here. It was a treat to read how they all interacted with each other and enhanced Laureth's perspective.

Yes, some plot elements are unbelievable - I can't say that really bothered me, though. Yes, the philosophy was kind of dense - I'm not entirely sure that I've understood everything that Sedgwick was trying to say about coincidences and almost-coincidences, or maybe what the famous thinkers like Jung and Einstein and Pauli were saying, but that's the beauty of She Is Not Invisible. It's thought-provoking. It doesn't offer all the answers even if you learn a lot about theories from those thinkers. And maybe I'll have to read She Is Not Invisible again to understand more, but I know, without a doubt, that I'll not be forgetting this novel anytime soon.