From the Bookshelf of Gentle SPECTRUMS…

More Than You Know

Beth Gutcheon

Start date: January 29, 2016

Finish date: January 31, 2016

Why we're reading this: "Know" is a mental sensation, isn't it? :) I hope these examples help everyone become creative.…more
[close] "Know" is a mental sensation, isn't it? :) I hope these examples help everyone become creative.

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Mar 20, 2012 Margaret rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorite-books-of-all-time, gutcheon-beth

This book should serve as the blueprint for how *all* ghost stories should be written. At least one of the main characters should be the restless spirit in question and at least show glimpses of how they once lived. Part of the thrill of any quality ghost fiction should be watching the path of the spirit's untimely death as its former existence is slowly revealed. The ghost should be a mysterious creature that doesn't communicate easily with the living character's conscious state of mind; otherw This book should serve as the blueprint for how *all* ghost stories should be written. At least one of the main characters should be the restless spirit in question and at least show glimpses of how they once lived. Part of the thrill of any quality ghost fiction should be watching the path of the spirit's untimely death as its former existence is slowly revealed. The ghost should be a mysterious creature that doesn't communicate easily with the living character's conscious state of mind; otherwise we are left with Casper The Friendly Ghost or Nearly Headless Nick from the Harry Potter series (and no, I am not knocking Potter - I love Harry Potter). How believable is any spirit that can walk and talk with you and really, the only difference between you, the living and he/she, the dead is that the spirit can pass through walls? How much mystery and suspense is wiped right out of that novel when the spirit is about to talk with, touch or simply enteract with the living character at any time? If you ask me that's when a novel ceases to deliver a spine tingling, suspenseful adventure and reads more like a run of the mill story about two friends/frenemies and the only difference in characters is that you can see through one of them - and don't sell me that overdone You're-The-Only-One-Who-Can-See-And-Hear-Me crap.

Beth Gutcheon has delivered the ideal ghost story. My only complaint (though certainly not with her!) is that I cannot find another ghost story quite like this one. Most other writers seem to prefer Casper The Friendly Ghost or its variant, Casper The Demonic Entity...but both versions are able to walk/talk/touch you at any time while having that really cool ability to pass through walls! It makes me wish that Gutcheon wrote more ghost stories because at least that way I'd have more than a meager handful of quality ghost fiction. (Christopher Pike's Remember Me, told entirely through the dead girl's perspective, was another "good one", BTW, though I was strongly opposed to his two sequels; if you ask me it should have ended at the first book - not that book 2: Oh goodie, I'm dead but I get to live again inside the body of someone who tried to kill herself! No, you're dead, you do NOT get to "live" again.)

More Than You Know combines two time periods, the Depression era which is "present day" in the story and (glimpses of the spirit's life) the mid to late 1800s, in alternate chapters like "two stories in one book" except the lives in the alternate time periods connect with each other. I understand that some were put off by this alternate present day and past but for me it just intensified my involvement in the story. From the very start I was curious about what life events molded this spirit into the restless and malignant entity it became in death - and let me tell you, that was one scary ghost! Why is it so hateful? Why is its despair and rage so powerful that the living characters, in mere seconds of seeing it right before it fades (that's how spirit apparitions should be shown in a ghost story, BTW, in brief flashes that fade as quickly as they appear) can literally feel it rolling off the entity in waves, as though its only substance is comprised of evil energy? Gutcheon did not disappoint! I got to witness the spirit's life unravel with each flashback, bit by bit, alternate chapter by alternate chapter and if you pay attention the spirit's life will also carry with it a parable. Gutcheon does not spoon feed the spirit's motive but she shows you enough that you can draw your own conclusions and once you do that, you will hunger for someone else to read this book just so that you can discuss it with another person (preferably a living one). ...more

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Jan 29, 2016 C. (Comment, never msg). rated it really liked it

Shelves: riedel-titles-2016

I savoured “More Than You Know” as a treat because adult ghost stories were scarce. I would have been excited there was a ghost at all. However, a peer dubbed this “the ultimate paranormal content”; which for me means communication with ghosts. There was none! I felt gypped because even the haunting was pointlessly unresolved. Claris befell no death that should result in any haunting. Her situation had numerous outlets for change, easily. The rest of Beth’s novel, I praise. She bears no fault fo ...more

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