Review: It never came together for me
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2013
Lucidity: A Ghost of a Love Story is a paranormal romance novel in the Gothic tradition. Grace Moran is a widow and an agoraphobic. She's in the hospital about to undergo surgery. She's terrified because she fears she will lose her spiritual connection with her dead husband if she has the surgery. He was murdered and Lukas, his killer, is undergoing treatment for his mental condition in the same hospital to which Grace was admitted. The narrative is rounded out by two other patients also undergoing intense medical treatment. Lukas and Grace are intertwined in both the past and present through Jimmy's murder and his returning spirit.In order to flesh out this connection between murderer and survivor, Lyons shifts time in the narrative. We jump from past to present and back as Lyons draws a more complete picture of the history that led us to this point. Unfortunately, the myriad of details thrust upon us do not always make direct connections to the present. The details often felt superfluous and pointless. Just as we were digging our way out of Jack the Ripper, we're thrust into a debate on the right to die issue. And then there's that sex with a ghost thing... the narrative began to feel like a maze with each turn taking a more bizarre angle.This was my first novel from CJ Lyons. I've read a lot of praise for her work, but this one failed to impress me. Bizarre, disjointed, and far from paranormal, I was never sure what Lyons wanted me to be reading. What was the point here? Was this a medical thriller? A paranormal romance? A ghost story? The novel just never came together entirely.