Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts is not what I expected. It starts with the black-clad character of Tuesday Mooney heading to work at a large hospital fundraiser. While she’s there, checking in the affluent guests, one of them, Nathaniel Arches, strikes up an unexpected flirtation with her. Later, during the fundraising auction, she and Nathaniel cross paths again and witness one of the other guests fall down dead. And this is the point when things get very weird.

The dead man turns out to be an eccentric billionaire named Vincent Pryce. He’s a collector of the obscure and macabre, also a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe. He had set up an elaborate game for the entire town to play upon his demise. This book follows Tuesday, her friends, and some new acquaintances as they get involved in the game.

The author put in a ton of literary and gothic Easter eggs for the readers. The style itself was slow to get through, very much like speaking to someone who constantly interrupts themself, goes off on a tangent, and then circles back to the original point. Despite the quirks in the storytelling, the characters and the premise were so unusual, I had to continue reading to see if I could figure out what was really going on, how it would all end, and whether it would ever become clear. It is a slow burn of a book and often convoluted, but enjoyable overall.