Fantasy thriller with an intriguing premise, and a beguiling narrative voice. However, I feel that North stretches out a whisper-thin plot, and indulges herself with the possibilities of her premise, and the "charm" of her protagonist, keeping the wheels spinning with a kind of fantasy "Bourne Identity." It's not good when the author seems to be having more fun than the reader ...
So ... great premise: what if "possession" is a real thing? What if those occasional "zone outs" we've all experienced aren't down to tiredness or brain fog, or one too many G&Ts, but because our bodies have been "borrowed" for a few minutes/hours/whatever? What if amnesia isn't a physiological or psychological syndrome, but the side effect of being "borrowed" for a longer period? What if drastic personality changes (the modest, teetotal saver who suddenly becomes a potty-mouthed, spendthrift drunk) aren't the result of an explosion in the brain, or repressed bad behaviour suddenly bursting free, but because the individual had, literally in an instant, become a different person ...?
North has great fun with this, imagining her "ghosts," a kind of psychic vampire, who use us ordinary mortals -- dismissively referred to as "skins" -- to hitch a ride, to get a free ticket on a plane or train, to hide and snoop, and test-drive different experiences, and sometimes, even, to live a life. Only to be discarded when the going gets rough, or a better, more convenient prospect comes along. North has given a lot of thought to what this would be like, seeing it from the perspective of Kepler, a ghost who has tripped from body to body for at least a couple hundred years; North has thought through the logistics, and carefully considered how it would affect the consciousness of one who survives by stealing lives, however much he/she/it tries to persuade itself that it is doing very little harm, and even sometimes doing some good for its host.
North doesn't dodge the horror of her scenario (even as the scenario is filtered through the consciousness of one who has even reason to deny the horror): two examples, the offhand mention of the advantages of stealing the body of someone in an irreversible coma (completely oblivious to how this toys with the emotions of the coma victim's hopeful friends and relations ....) And one "ghost" who steals the whole life of a young man, only to abandon him, after 30-odd years of living a life for him, as he is undergoing chemotherapy -- to the shock and bafflement of wife, adult daughters ... and the original host, whose last memory was that of being a clueless 20-something shaking hands with a stranger ...
It's greatly to North's credit that she presents these episodes, and other ghostly anecdotes of equal horror, matter-of-factly, but recognizing that they have consequences ... that whether they like it or not, whether they even realize it or not, the ghosts have not emerged unscathed. I said that Kepler is "charming," and he/she/it is -- but Kepler is also a monster. And knows it.
BUT ... I did feel that North dragged things out longer than she really needed to. It's a credit to her skill as a writer (and she really can write ...) that I never felt like putting it down, and walking away, but I always had a sinking feeling that the conclusion wasn't going to be worth the investment of my time. Shave off 50 pages or so, and you have a neat, thoughtful thriller.
So ... great premise: what if "possession" is a real thing? What if those occasional "zone outs" we've all experienced aren't down to tiredness or brain fog, or one too many G&Ts, but because our bodies have been "borrowed" for a few minutes/hours/whatever? What if amnesia isn't a physiological or psychological syndrome, but the side effect of being "borrowed" for a longer period? What if drastic personality changes (the modest, teetotal saver who suddenly becomes a potty-mouthed, spendthrift drunk) aren't the result of an explosion in the brain, or repressed bad behaviour suddenly bursting free, but because the individual had, literally in an instant, become a different person ...?
North has great fun with this, imagining her "ghosts," a kind of psychic vampire, who use us ordinary mortals -- dismissively referred to as "skins" -- to hitch a ride, to get a free ticket on a plane or train, to hide and snoop, and test-drive different experiences, and sometimes, even, to live a life. Only to be discarded when the going gets rough, or a better, more convenient prospect comes along. North has given a lot of thought to what this would be like, seeing it from the perspective of Kepler, a ghost who has tripped from body to body for at least a couple hundred years; North has thought through the logistics, and carefully considered how it would affect the consciousness of one who survives by stealing lives, however much he/she/it tries to persuade itself that it is doing very little harm, and even sometimes doing some good for its host.
North doesn't dodge the horror of her scenario (even as the scenario is filtered through the consciousness of one who has even reason to deny the horror): two examples, the offhand mention of the advantages of stealing the body of someone in an irreversible coma (completely oblivious to how this toys with the emotions of the coma victim's hopeful friends and relations ....) And one "ghost" who steals the whole life of a young man, only to abandon him, after 30-odd years of living a life for him, as he is undergoing chemotherapy -- to the shock and bafflement of wife, adult daughters ... and the original host, whose last memory was that of being a clueless 20-something shaking hands with a stranger ...
It's greatly to North's credit that she presents these episodes, and other ghostly anecdotes of equal horror, matter-of-factly, but recognizing that they have consequences ... that whether they like it or not, whether they even realize it or not, the ghosts have not emerged unscathed. I said that Kepler is "charming," and he/she/it is -- but Kepler is also a monster. And knows it.
BUT ... I did feel that North dragged things out longer than she really needed to. It's a credit to her skill as a writer (and she really can write ...) that I never felt like putting it down, and walking away, but I always had a sinking feeling that the conclusion wasn't going to be worth the investment of my time. Shave off 50 pages or so, and you have a neat, thoughtful thriller.
