I suspect I’ll be thinking about this book for a while, and although I waited for my turn on the library hold list I promptly bought my own copy as soon as I finished. I absolutely adored the writing and the characters throughout this novel. I found the writing to be beautiful and descriptive in a way that transports you right into the story alongside the characters. I saw a lot of complaints in other reviews & the forum about the pace being slow but I enjoyed the writing and storytelling so much that it never felt like a chore to me. Some of the criticisms really intrigue me largely because I found Theo of Golden to be so wholesome and inspiring, while still maintaining plenty of realistic life lessons and takeaways, that I just have to remind myself that everyone reads for different reasons. I enjoyed the absolute hell out of this novel from start to finish and can’t wait to loan my copy to friends to talk more about it. Very strong chance this ends up being one of my favorite reads (if not my overall favorite) in 2026.

Even though the cover of this book literally says “an American ghost story” I think I somehow wasn’t prepared for how heavily the ghosts bit would be part of this book. And that’s largely on me! I’d say I still enjoyed the book overall, although at times for me it felt like it was bouncing between SO many different themes - racism, war, the music & entertainment industry, drugs, generational trauma, etc. - that it was difficult to have all of those hit the mark. That said, I did quite enjoy the cast of characters and their development once I accepted that I just needed to suspend some realism with the ghost portions. And I found myself really enjoying and appreciating Christmas by the end! Fun enough read, probably not one I’d revisit.

Seeing as this was my first non-fiction book in a VERY long time I enjoyed this so much more than I was expecting to, and I get why it’s been so popular. I learned a ton and the storyline and content were so interesting. It sort of makes me chuckle seeing people criticize it as being like, “everything is racism and classism” because… uh, yeah? Kinda the point? Anyway, would absolutely recommend and might even argue it’s required reading for today’s world.