The Ghostwriter by Alessandra Torre | Audiobook Review • Ana's Attic Book Blog

The Ghostwriter by Alessandra (A.R.) Torre

Narrated by Andrea Izzy Anthony

Contemporary Fiction (Not Romance). Standalone.

I was going to the Shameless book signing and Alessandra Torre was going to be there. I haven’t read her books in years, but I saw The Ghostwriter on Hoopla and just grabbed it without even reading the synopsis. I remembered hearing about it, but I had no idea that it wasn’t a romance at all. That’s OK, I have been looking to mix things up more and more.

“If you lie enough times, no one believes your truth.”

The main character is Helena, a bestselling romance author who finds out she has three months to live. At first she’s very unlikeable, controlling, and rigid. She has one last story to tell, but she knows she can’t write it in three months, so she hires a ghostwriter—another romance author who she has never met, but emailed mean critiques to and treated as a rival for years.

“I’m dying, and it’s the best thing that has happened to me in a long time.”

Helena has no one in her life. She lives alone in a large, empty home with locked doors. The story is told in a book-within-a-book format, as well as through flashbacks and some additional POVs. There are twists and turns I never expected and after a bit of a break-in period, I couldn’t stop listening. I finished hours later with tears running down my face.

I am trying to give NOTHING away so I am not going to list my likes and dislikes for this title.

The Narration:

I had some trouble with the narrator, Andrea Izzy Anthony. She was monotone and more of a downer in an already sad book. She had what was maybe supposed to be a southern accent where she doesn’t pronounce the ends of her words (“tryin” instead of “trying”), but that may have been actually written in the book? I found her voice a little too young sounding for the character as well. In addition to that the edits were jarring and obvious.

I think The Ghostwriter might be a little better read than listened to, but don’t let it stop you from getting the audio if you’re an audio listener. Even without loving the narration, the book itself was riveting.

The Down & Dirty:

If you are looking for something completely unique and different with some suspense and an edge-of-your-seat, emotional story, I recommend Ghost Writer by Alessandra Torre. You will never guess how the story twists and it will keep you up all night reading/listening.

*There are definitely triggers for some people, so look for warnings if you need to.