Customer Reviews

Ghost Radio: A Novel

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Joaquin has had the Dead Kennedys song "Kill The Poor" stuck in his head all week, so when Gabriel starts humming it in the hospital, Joaquin joins in. From that point forward, the boys, whose parents just crashed into each other leaving both boys as orphans, find their lives completely intertwined. They even end up living with relatives in the same neighborhood. They're both intrigued with noise and form a band that takes "found sounds" and arranges them into music.

After Gabriel's death, Joaquin begins to listen even harder to the noises around him, hoping to find a hidden message there from Gabriel. He turns the dials of his radio hoping to pick up a ghostly voice in the static. As a final hope for some contact from the world beyond, Joaquin starts up a radio show similar to one they listened to together in the hospital where they first met, Ghost Radio. He takes calls from people with paranormal stories to tell, but really he hopes beyond hope that perhaps one day Gabriel will call in.

Strangely, the song "Kill the Poor" is a common thread that runs through Joaquin's life from the moment he meets Gabriel: "Efficiency and progress is ours once more now that we have the neutron bomb. It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done. Away with excess enemy, but no less value to property. No sense in war but perfect sense at home." Joaquin starts to feel as if perhaps he is a neutron bomb, bringing death to everyone he loves. The more he thinks of this, the more bizarre his life becomes. He can't tell the difference between life and the lucid dreams he begins to have. But suddenly everything makes sense to him in one lucid moment that determines the future of those he loves.

Leopoldo Gout does a great job of storytelling. I found myself drawn into the story, and I read most of it in one sitting. I looked forward to the few stories of the paranormal that were told over the airwaves of Ghost Radio. Another thing about the book that I really enjoyed is that the author places a photo from Gabriel's "Polaroid journal" at the beginning of each chapter. These "Polaroids" are actually drawn by the author himself and are quite beautiful.

After reading, I found myself chewing over how the various components of the story are intertwined. I enjoyed every moment of reading this novel. However, I'm afraid some might not understand how the book had to end and feel cheated by it. Personally, I can't see how it could have ended otherwise. What a lovely book. I feel like rereading it just to try to tease out all its secrets from the beginning. And, like Joaquin, I'm going to have "Kill the Poor" stuck in my head for a week.

GHOST RADIO isn't CARRIE, but It's certainly a commendable first novel in the horror genre. One might get wrong impressions from other reviewers. The story is told in the third person at the beginning, but many chapters are written in the first person, mostly from Joaquin's viewpoint and a few from Alondra. However it's not a case of the first half being in the first person and the second half in the third person. Instead the p0erspective switches from time to time throughout the entire novel. At first this can be confusing until you realize the reason for the author doing this. Joaquin experiences periods in which he seems to be in a story he's hearing, and this abrupt switching between the third person and first person reflects the shifting reality he is living in. Joaquin is the protagonist here as the host of a late night call in show, one in which listeners call and tell strange experiences thay have had. Joaquin becomes absorbed in these stories and his own sense of reality is affected. His goth girl friend, Alondra, and sound engineer, Charles Watt (appropriate name there) are the others associated with the program. And then there's Gabriel, Joaquin's friend since a horrific accident in which both lost their parents and himself eventually the victim of a tragic accident. The author skillfully blends these characters in a dreamlike story verging on nightmare.This is a haunting story and expect to hear much more from Leopoldo Gout who even now is working on a collaberation with James Patterson.

I was excited at the prospect of a original ghost story. After all, a ghost in the radio is pretty original - right? I give this a A for orginality but that's all. The book was slow moving and while I was looking for real horror and suspence, I didn't get much of anything. I found this book to be sort of blah. There is a lot of introspection and not enough action. To be honest, I had trouble finishing it.

Joaquin has a late night radio program called Ghost Radio. His show is really starting to take off. He has a troubling maybe even haunted past. As the show gets bigger Joaquin is starting to recieve messages from airwaves on the radio, from banal objects of everyday life, bizarre phone calls at the show and at home. He can not ignore the messages he recieves any longer, his girlfriend thinks he's going crazy, and while he's on his breaking point it is finally time to meet up with his past and face the messages he recieves. I can't tell you more or I will ruin the book for you.

I really enjoyed the style of this book, it felt more like a graphic novel than a novel, it's like an in betweener. The style is I think partly why I read it in one sitting. They are short and snappy chapters, they tell you things, but not enough to grasp the full picture in front of you. I do not always want to be told how to come to my own conclusions, and this book allows me to do that. I also think the style moving from the plot before you to the past, to journal entries moves very similiar to some graphic novels I've enjoyed, I liked the movement.

The art work was fantastic, after I raced through the book, I went back and re-examined the art, some of it freaked me out, some of it was simply intriguing.

The movement of the plot and correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Gout is supposed to be somewhat disorienting. When are you most scared? When you don't know what's going on. I really enjoyed the pace and style of the story. I felt a little so-so at the ending, but then my imagination did a little take over, I re-read the very first page in this book and the last chapter again and maybe I didn't get Mr. Gout's meaning but I got my own; which I prefer. I hate packages all wrapped up in bows at the end.

I think this book will have a strong cult style fanship, I'm saving my five-star review for the next book he does as I'm sure he will only improve. Good Read.

When I'm reading a book that's a struggle to read, I usually keep going to the end, sometimes wondering when I finish it why I bothered. I almost never quit with only a portion of it read. With Ghost Radio, I just reached a point about halfway through where I couldn't take it anymore. The plot is way too disjointed, with too much relevant backstory not given when it's needed to make sense of characters' current actions. There were just way too many moments of frustration because I didn't understand what was happening and why. And the characters themselves weren't all that interesting or sympathetic. Even if I HAD gotten the plot, I wouldn't have cared about the outcome at all.

I really don't understand the comparisons to King's first novel, Carrie, or any of his other early novels for that matter, as touted on the back of this book. I just don't see it. This writer is no Stephen King. I recently read Carrie and it was pure genius--even if you don't normally read horror novels (and I don't) you can't help but appreciate King's writing and form.

I found this book dull and not the least bit scary. The writing (I should say the overwriting) was about as unsophisticated as you can get, and the plot was virtually non-existent. Almost three quarters of the way through the book, the author seemed to have another idea about what he wanted to do (the Toltec thing) and decided to run with it. It just didn't work, nothing seemed to ever gel for me. The structure was annoying with his perspective switches--it may have worked if he just switched from character to character, but then switching back from a character's telling the story to the narrative voice, it really just became an pesky annoyance.

I would never stop reading a book I didn't like if I am reviewing it as I feel an obligation to complete the book to give an honest and complete review. Thankfully, the chapters were mostly "DaVinci Code" short and the addition of the odd and amateurish illustrations in between chapters (the author's own work?) also helped to shorten the length of this work.

I'm not sure where the publishers of this book got the impression this book was horrifying and/or thrilling, but I think the book could benefit from some serious editing and repackaging. Sorry, this one just didn't work for me--and although at first I thought maybe I was simply the wrong audience, I have come to the conclusion that this was simply a poorly written book. Good luck to the author with future endeavors; the nugget of a good idea is there, but this novel totally lacked plot, direction, and editing.

Joaquin and Gabriel are the children of two sets of parents who have crashed into each other and died. They become best friends in Texas.

Shortly after forming a band together Gabriel is electrocuted and dies.

Joaquin hears "something" in the white noise of his ham radio while he's tuning it.

Joaquin starts a radio show with his girlfriend, Alondra, hoping that someday Gabriel will call in. The name of the show is "Ghost Radio" and is a Mexican radio program based out of Mexico City.

Radio show goes American - Joaquin has mixed emotions about returning to Texas.

When he sees a helicopter in the night, Joaquin recognizes that the strobe is flashing in morse code, messages about talking to him soon.

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Story shifts from third person to first person quite randomly.

Slow moving story.

Can easily jump back and forth between the present and the past without warning.

If you can keep up with it, it's a fresh horror genre.

Joaquin hears something in the white noise as he's tuning his ham radio. It is trying to communicate with him, only he doesn't know yet what it is. It doesn't know what it is either. They're both going to find out.

Joaquin and his girlfriend Alondra are hosts of a call in radio show called Ghost Radio in Mexico City. Because of their popularity, they're offered a test in America and they fly up to Houston for they're first American broadcast. Joaquin sees a helicopter in the night sky. It's strobe is blinking and like that white noise, Joaquin sees a pattern. It's Morse code, the message is from It and It's saying, "Joaquin, we'll be talking soon." Then if flashes, "Goodbye and best wishes." It is figuring out what it is and before too long Joaquin is going to know too.

This is a horror story of the kind Stephen King used to write back in the day. It grabs you by the scruff of the neck, sends chills down your spine as it takes you to places you don't want to go. Scary stuff, but deliciously scary. I was awake all night, even though I finished the book by two. I couldn't help myself, I started it again.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. However, I must admit I felt cheated by the fact that there's a full-page illustration at every chapter break (of which there are about 50, and more than half are accompanied by an extra blank page as well). That right there cut the page count down by appox. 70 pages, not to mention the margins. I flew through this book in less than three days, and not because I was dying to know what happens.

The story has its strong points. I was especially drawn in by the relationship between Gabriel and Joaquin when they were younger. Gout definitely has the goods to create memorable, likable characters. My biggest complaint is that he put them into a supernatural situation that lacks clearly defined rules-- he seems to be able to do whatever he wants to torment them and the rules shift accordingly. I was left extremely dissatisfied by the deus ex machina ending where one character suddenly understands the situation and knows what to do. Two of the blurbs mention Stephen King (a sure win for any first novel) and I think I see why: he is often criticized for not being able to end a story either.

The structure is infuriating too. It frequently jumps between first and third person and from character to character and through several different time frames-- and the reader is expected to pick up on where is when is who based on the context of the first few paragraphs. I would have much preferred a name and year added to each chapter title instead.

Still, there were enough moments to like and some great creepy sequences (even if they were totally unrelated to the actual narrative) that I'll most likely check out Gout's next novel. I think he could be an emerging talent, and I'd be willing to give him another shot, but this one just left me annoyed and wanting more of the good stuff.

This book was very intriquitely plotted, maybe a bit too much so, since at the end there were piles of unanswered questions about Joaquin, Gabriel, Alondra, and Watt, and why and how they ended up in this awful situation. I agree with everyone who said the callers were the best part of the book. It was a good idea, and had some really good and truly scary moments, but overall there were too many things left hanging for me. I like a book that neatly ties up the loose ends. This is a borrow from the library kind of book, not one your likely to read more than once.