TEEN VOGUE BOOK CLUB PICK • A Harvard freshman becomes obsessed with her schizophrenic brother’s suicide. Then she starts hearing voices.“A rich, intricately plotted thriller . . . Serritella, who is a Harvard grad herself, writes about the campus with an insider’s savvy.”—Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post“Every time I thought I knew where Ghosts of Harvard was heading, I turned out to be … where Ghosts of Harvard was heading, I turned out to be wrong. Part mystery, part ghost story, part psychological thriller, this novel is all entertainment.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult
Cadence Archer arrives on Harvard’s campus desperate to understand why her brother, Eric, a genius who developed paranoid schizophrenia took his own life there the year before. Losing Eric has left a black hole in Cady’s life, and while her decision to follow in her brother’s footsteps threatens to break her family apart, she is haunted by questions of what she might have missed. And there’s only one place to find answers.
As Cady struggles under the enormous pressure at Harvard, she investigates her brother’s final year, armed only with a blue notebook of Eric’s cryptic scribblings. She knew he had been struggling with paranoia, delusions, and illusory enemies—but what tipped him over the edge? Voices fill her head, seemingly belonging to three ghosts who passed through the university in life, or death, and whose voices, dreams, and terrors still echo the halls. Among them is a person whose name has been buried for centuries, and another whose name mankind will never forget.
Does she share Eric’s illness, or is she tapping into something else? Cady doesn’t know how or why these ghosts are contacting her, but as she is drawn deeper into their worlds, she believes they’re moving her closer to the truth about Eric, even as keeping them secret isolates her further. Will listening to these voices lead her to the one voice she craves—her brother’s—or will she follow them down a path to her own destruction?
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An accomplished debut, richly imagined and beautifully wrought with all my favorite questions about hauntings, inner and outer.
This is a very good paranormal mystery. Though at times you don’t know if it’s paranormal or mental illness that is affecting Cady’s experience during her freshman year at Harvard. This is an emotional read…between the suicide of Cady’s brother, the effects of mental illness, family relationship issues, insecurity, the manipulation of Cady’s emotions, and the stress of handling the academic rigors at Harvard University.
Because I work in an academic environment, this book really appealed to me. I connected with many of the aspects of Cady’s experiences during her time in college.
My heart ached for Cady as she dealt with the emotional trauma of her brother dealing with schizophrenia and his eventual suicide. The drama she endured and the stigma and guilt she experience, were heart wrenching. Not only does this book deal with mental illness, but you are treated to a historical tale of people whose lives were touched by their time at the University…as students and slaves. You are also brought into a mystery that weaves itself through the pages.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishers for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own. I am looking forward to the author creating another delightful book in which I can get lost and enjoy! A great debut novel.
While reading Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella, I was amazed by her descriptions of the architect and the grounds of Harvard. You can tell she really explored the campus while there. And the history of the campus was very cool to read. One of the many reasons I love books is all the new things you learn, like when Harvard first began they had slaves who worked there. One of the many things I never learned in school.
At 471 pages this is a longer book, but I wanted more… of some of it at least. The first 20% was Cadence aka Cady, rehashing her brother’s death over and over. And then it was repeated heavily throughout the rest of the book. While we all need to talk about mental illness and suicide more, I also pick up a fiction book for enjoyment, not to be brought down repeatedly. It took me a bit to finally get into the story, and then there wasn’t enough.
I think people who read the synopsis and are drawn to Ghosts of Harvard for the supernatural aspect of the book may be disappointed. Although there is a ghost story in the book, well, actually three, it comes down to the ghosts helping Cady deal with her brother’s death, even while she is interacting with them. I wanted more of the ghosts. I wanted the ghosts to mean more than being a way to help her with her issues or teach us about history (even if they did in a cool way). And later on, when the mystery gets more involved, I wanted more of the conspiracy that her brother had been experiencing.
So while there was too much of reliving her brother’s death, for me, there wasn’t enough mystery, ghosts, and conspiracies. Which makes me a bit sad because what Serritella did write in regards to them was excellent.
I still highly recommend this book though, even if it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
I simply loved this book. Every single sentence. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to pick it up.
A humdinger of a novel that you’ll remember long after turning the final page. Eloquently written, with memorable characters who jump out of the story and into your heart, this suspenseful novel will keep you guessing.
SLOW burn warning!! Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella is an incredibly thought-provoking look at mental illness, but the pacing is very slow which I know will be a huge turn off for some people. Luckily for me, I love audiobooks and listening to it made it feel not quite so slow. Karissa Vacker was a good narrator, and I had no issues with how she read the book. The audio made me feel more connected to the story and characters, although Serritella’s writing did that as well. It was so vivid and compelling, and I know from other reviewers that she did an excellent job with her approach to paranoid schizophrenia and suicide.
I really felt for Cady and her family, and so many parts of the story just broke my heart. I have not had much experience with suicide or mental illness with either friends or relatives, but Ghosts of Harvard still resonated with me and was a heartbreaking look at what a family can go through when affected by both. There was also a mystery aspect to the book that I was a huge fan of, and when Cady starts hearing voices things get even more interesting. Serritella did a great job of making the reader wonder if she was experiencing mental illness, or if it was actually happening to her. I ended up doing some Googling afterwards and I feel like it taught me some things I didn’t know which I loved.
If you enjoy slow burns and literary fiction I would recommend reading Ghosts of Harvard. It’s a pretty heavy read but one that leaves you with hope, and Cady was a really great character and viewpoint. If you are a fan of audio I would go that route since to me, it helped with the pacing. Overall this is a well-thought-out novel and I can tell the author is smart and took her time with it.
Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella features beautiful, lyrical prose, lush description, and heartbreaking emotion. The story will keep you guessing as Cady Archer struggles to deal with her freshman year at the very university where her older brother recently leaped to his death in a losing battle with mental illness. Was his death really suicide? Are the voices she now hears an indication that she’s following him down the same path? Or is she being haunted? One thing is certain: This one will continue to haunt me for a long time to come.
This is a fabulous book that you MUST read! A tantalizing story about a sister investigating the last days of her brother’s life, it keeps the reader intrigued throughout. I can’t wait to read more by this author!
This was a moving story about a girl’s attempts to come to terms with her brother’s suicide – while attending Harvard, the location of his death.
As if college isn’t stressful enough, Cady has to deal with the added stress of her brother’s recent suicide (while attending the college where he died) AND her mother’s inability to accept her decision to attend AND her parents’ marital issues. Oh yeah, AND the voices that seem to have taken up residence in her head since she started…
This was a mystery of a story for a while. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be scary, supernatural, weird, psychological… Turns out it was a bit of all of these, with some coming-of-age, romance, and mystery bits thrown in for good measure.
Serritella does a very nice job blending all of these elements into a tale that develops slowly and confusingly – much like Cady’s experiences with the voices themselves. It made for an atmospheric read that kept me guessing for much of the story (in a good way). The drama built up and resolved itself a little dramatically and quickly (and tidily) in the end, and while I saw some of it coming, other parts were a complete surprise. As with the slower build of the beginning, this meld of elements was occasionally disorienting but ultimately satisfying, and I quite enjoyed the read as a result.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
I have enjoyed author Francesca Serritella’s essays and articles for years, so I expected good, solid, thoughtful writing in Ghosts of Harvard. But I have to admit I did not expect the depth and nuance, the brilliantly crafted characters, or the full, rich, fascinating history of Harvard. Or the ghost story that was so magnificently overlaid on and seamlessly woven in throughout Cady’s story. This is a book about family, about the strength Cady displays in even going to Harvard after her brother Eric committed suicide there, about Cady’s hope to find answers that might bring her family back to some kind of normal, and about her almost numbing fear that those answers might be too awful for her to live with. The story is populated with a vivid array of characters, some good, some bad, some real, some possibly imagined, and a surprising amount of action and suspense. Cady is in real danger at times.
Ghosts of Harvard has many layers and multiple plotlines. There were a couple of characters that I didn’t like or trust from the start, so of course as the story neared its end I thought “Aha! I’ve figured it out, I knew this was the case.” Well, I shouldn’t have been so smug. Author Serritella introduces twists and turns and unexpected behavior and events and links that you won’t see until the very satisfying ending.
Thanks to author Francesca Serritella and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of Ghosts of Harvard for my reading pleasure and honest review. All opinions are my own. This is an amazing book that is so engaging, so engrossing, so fulfilling that you won’t be able to put it down. You will be on Cady’s side from the start, especially when you realize how young and brave and determined she is and her memories of Eric will make you tear up and miss him as much as she does. I thoroughly enjoyed Ghosts of Harvard and recommend it without hesitation. I hope this is the first of many masterpieces from Francesca Serritella.
4.5 Stars
Wow! This book was so much more than I expected…ghost story, psychological thriller, mystery….heartbreak and drama. This book had me hooked from Page 1. I enjoyed the descriptive writing and the characters. Loved the ghostly influence. Not necessarily a light read, but one you won’t be able to put down for sure. Mental Health is a big part of this book, and it is handled honestly.
Cady and her family are still reeling from the death of her brother, Eric, a genius diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, who committed suicide a year before at Harvard. Cady decides to also attend Harvard, against her parents wishes. Cady is looking for answers to a question…WHY? She gets more than she expected when she starts delving into Eric’s actions his last year. With all the added pressure of being a freshman at an Ivy, she starts hearing voices which makes her question her own mental health.
I’ve been a fan of Ms. Serritella’s essay collections and Sunday column written with her mom, Lisa Scottoline, for some time. But, what a debut novel! Well done. I can’t wait to read the next one!
Cady’s older brother killed himself while going to Harvard. Cady decides to go to Harvard herself so she can try and figure out what happened to Eric. Cady has a notebook of Eric and little else to go on. Cady, her mom, and her dad are all grieving over Eric. Can Cady get to the bottom of what happened to Eric and move on? This story is a story of grief and family. I enjoyed the characters and the mystery of the story. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
Francesca Serritella knocked it out of Fenway Park with her debut novel. This is a can’t put down until the end thriller. Everyone deals with suicides of people they know in different ways but Cady’s way of coping was to emerge herself in her brother’s life at Harvard. Her obsession to know why or could she have changed anything leads her down a chilling path. The author does a remarkable job at describing schizophrenia and the difficulties in dealing with a loved one with that diagnosis. I also loved the intertwining of real history and people with a connection to Harvard with the fictional characters.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing the ARC. The review is my true and honest opinion of this book.
This was a doozy of a book. You can tell by the writing that it has been thoroughly and thoughtfully researched, and there’s a lot of different topics included. Physics, math, French poets, schizophrenia, suicide, Harvard, history, world wars, slavery – it is in this book. But it is all intertwined into a very readable book that you dive into and don’t want to put down. I actually managed a little (lot) of day reading with this one, which I normally can’t fit into my day. The characters are alive and believable and stick with you. Cady is heading to Harvard, the campus where her only brother committed suicide just the year before. She is headstrong and very bright, but has lived in the shadow of her genius but schizophrenic brother for a long time. Once there, she fears mental illness has come to find her, too. With a notebook from her brother, she finds her own way through his last few months at Harvard and the mystery surrounding them.
This book has so many nooks and crannies, it is hard to do it justice with a short review. But it is tightly written. Just go read it. I highly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy. I will probably buy this in hard copy so I can reread it. I’m sure I’ll find something new. Go. Read.