“It was the first time he allowed himself to consider the book might be the problem.”

Rife with Easter eggs of overarching connections and darkly whimsical, I’ll sing the praises of “Ghostwritten” while simultaneously kicking myself for not getting into Malfi sooner. Curses, hauntings, and even a choose your own adventure, all in one quad-fecta of spooky ooky fun. Malfi rockets up plot intensity, often in the middle of a sentence, so adeptly that it reminds me of a spider crawling across your legs under the bedsheets. One minute you’re lounging, relaxing, and the next: flailing wildly reaching for your bedside lamp.

Repeated phrases while reading: “holy shit?” and “oh, no” and “good for her” (the vagina book, you’ll know the one.) Four novellas, four endings that came far too soon.

5/5 If any of Malfi’s other billion books are like this, my reading list for next year just got longer.