Customer Reviews

The Ghost Trap (LeapLit)

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4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
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Burdened by the hard knocks of life in a Maine town populated by families who have been in the lobstering trade for several generations, Jamie Eugley is a man with a good heart and an explosive temper. He so wants to do the right thing, but as often as not, he can shatter his best intentions with an outburst that results almost immediately in regrets and repercussions. He lives with the worries of his hand-to-mouth business and the oppressive responsibilities of caring for Anja, a former girlfriend who has been seriously incapacitated by a head trauma (the cause of which is unveiled some way into the book) and whom he has sworn never to abandon. His lifelong friends bring him amusement and loyalty tinged with occasional embarrassment. He has almost surrendered to the tyrannical drudgery of his so-called life when he meets a bohemian, tomboyish hippie chick named (of all things) Happy.

At times, Jamie reminds me of a character from a Halldor Laxness novel--a faintly loutish but likable hero intrigued by the cosmopolitan world outside his small-town surroundings yet aware that he could never be a part of it. When he goes to the rich-kids rave at which he meets Happy, he is surprised that they are "sociable and accepting, even of him in his blue work shirt," yet he realizes that it "wouldn't be the other way around." A few years earlier, he had even attempted an escape that brought him to the Portland on America's other coast, but it didn't take him long to realize he will always be a modern-day yeoman and, discouraged and broke, he returned home. Yet that longing for something different sets him apart from his friends--his dalliance with Happy only rekindles the hunger--and it's this conflict between the world of realities and the world of possibilities that will result in tragedy and, ultimately, his redemption. Jamie isn't just a lobsterman, he's Everyman who has ever wanted to be more than he is.

"The Ghost Trap" is not just a good read, it is an excellent novel--and I'm almost ready to proclaim it as the best work of contemporary fiction that I've read this year. (It's certainly the best debut.) Stephens's knack for plotting is enhanced by her ear for impeccable dialogue (both local and urban) and by authentic interior monologue: her portrayal of Happy is so dead-on that I felt like I knew her, and some passages simply awed me with their lyrical precision. There are as many hilarious moments as poignant ones--yet the novel never once stoops to sentimentality. And there's enough of a plot--involving a mystery set off by decades-long territorial feuds between lobstermen--to satisfy the reader expecting more than a character study. Stephens has given her deeply flawed saint a life worth examining.

The fresh air, honest work, and good food... how many of us wish we had that simple life as a lobsterman in Maine, the home of the highest quality lobsters in the world?

Except... sometimes the lobsters aren't there but the mortgage payment and bills are. Sometimes the need to fish is there but the weather doesn't cooperate. Then there is the competition for prime lobster trapping areas, the cost of traps and bait, and the knuckle-busting, back-breaking work. And the stress, with its escapist drinking, and the drinking leading to the coming-of-age DUIs, and the DUIs resulting in grievous injuries...

In The Ghost Trap, author K. Stephens introduces us to Jamie Eugley, a lobsterman like his father, and his father's father. On top of everything else, he is committed to caring for his girlfriend, Anja, who suffered a brain injury in a near drowning accident. Jamie's life gets even more complicated, as he meets an exciting and vivacious sailor named Happy, and gets involved in the escalating lobster trap wars between competing families and towns.

This novel was just enthralling, and you'll have no idea how things are going to turn out until the end. Author Stephens brings her knowledge of the sea and lobstering to good use, as she mixes in unique characters and a constant tension that continues to simmer for over 300 pages.

This is a sad, sad story, but a very good novel. Recommended.

Stephens is a terrific writer. In this novel, she brings to life a group of Maine lobstermen, including Jamie Hugley, who, at 27, is the guardian of his former fiancee - a young woman named Anja who sustained a brain-injury after falling off of his boat. He is torn between his strong sense of responsibility and the possibility of starting over again with another woman, in another place. The characters are vibrant and complicated. Stephens managed to make me feel compassion for a bunch of beer-swilling rednecks, and by the end of the book, she had broken my heart

This is a story about one lobsterman's struggles and joys with his work and his life.

Jamie Eugely has lobstering in his blood. Living in Maine he was taught to lobster by both his father and his grandfather at a very young age. When he was a teen he thought to escape the small town Maine lifestyle, but ultimately came back to the family business.

Now he struggles as new lobsterman set their pots too close to his, tangling the lines and ignore century old lobstering etiquette and boundaries. He also struggles to see glimpses of the woman he once loved so deeply in the brain damaged fiancée, Anja, he now cares for.

This book was really hard to put to down. It's one of those books you could just read cover to cover if life didn't keep getting in your way. From page one I was completely entranced in Jamie's world. K. Stephens is a gifted writer that tells her tale and keeps the reader entertained and hanging on every word from beginning to end.

This isn't a happy-go-lucky tale; it's actually quite heartbreaking and painful at times. This is one of those stories that the characters really resonated deep within me, and one of those stories that will haunt my thoughts for quite some time. It will be hard for me not to think of Jamie and Anja and their day to day back breaking work; him trying to bring in the lobster to make the money and her trying to get back to a life before her accident.

This is a poignant and brilliantly told story. It broke my heart and managed to make me smile, I highly recommend this book.

Cherise Everhard, July 2010

Those of us who have seen episodes of Deadliest Catch - Seasons 1, 2, & 3 have been exposed to a subculture that has usually been closed-off to most landlubbers. The show gives a perspective on the dangers and paydays of the fishing industry.

Instead of crab fishing off the coast of Alaska, the present book details lobster fishing off the coast of Maine. Many motifs / terms from the Discovery channel show permeate this book. It provides trenchant insight into the generations of rivalries, sabotage and tactics used by lobster fishermen to get a leg up on the competition. It is a culture that is closed-off to outsiders who consider themselves wanna-be lobstermen.

The storyline of the novel is encapsulated within the framework of the lobster fishing industry. A fisherman named Jamie makes the mistake of taking his girlfriend (Anja) out with him one day.

An accident leaves her debilitated and not much more than a shell of what she once was. A woman who had so much promise as an artist has her life changed forever by an unforgiving sea. She is left dueling with her own subconscious, trying to regain what she once was.

At its core, however, the book is much more about Jamie than it is about Anja. Jamie must come to grips with how he underestimated (and some would say disrespected) the power of the sea. Along the way, he is obliged to deal with the longings he has for a female sailor as well as the bad intentions of rival fishing clans.

This is a book that is surprisingly fascinating. For all the people (like me!) who thought that lobster fishing was as simple as laying out your strings of traps, this novel is particularly eye-opening. I'm apt to believe that a great many denizens of Maine will read this book....and feel right at home.

I'm trying to read a bit more out of my normal comfort zone when it comes to fiction, and as such I accepted the offer of a review copy of The Ghost Trap by K. Stephens. Centered around the life of a lobsterman in Maine struggling with a number of issues in his life, it definitely doesn't fall into my "action/adventure" category. :) But I'm glad I decided to read this debut novel, as the author did a very nice job on it. I definitely felt for the main character as he fought against all the external and internal pressures crushing him down.

Jamie Eugley comes from nine generations of lobstermen working the coast of Maine, harvesting lobsters to make a living. While out on his boat one day with his girlfriend Anja, she accidentally falls overboard and suffers brain damage from oxygen deprivation before she can be found and revived. Eugley feels a massive load of guilt for having that happen, and decides that he will care for her as she slowly works her way back to some form of a normal life. But her care is not cheap, she can't be left alone for long as she gets easily distracted, and Eugley wonders whether she ever will return to be the person he once loved. While this struggle with his commitment is raging in his life, he meets a young vivacious woman working a sailing ship catering to tourists. He wants desperately to fall in love with her and run off to the Florida Keys, but his duty to Anja keeps getting in the way. It's also not helping that a trap war has broken out in the area, and age-old rivalries and vendettas are about to erupt into actions that could cost Eugley his livelihood and possibly his life.

Keeping in mind I'm used to plots that are fast-paced and action-packed, I enjoyed this more than I though I might. Stephens can paint scenes and images with words very well, and getting into the characters wasn't a struggle in the least. I felt for Anja's pain as she tried to get back to what she once was, but was continually betrayed by her brain sending her off on various distractions. I could also empathize with Eugley, squeezed by tradition, duty, and financial pressure, tempted to just turn his back on it all and do something that *he* wanted for once. While I was enjoying her way with words, I *did* start to wonder about halfway through where the entire plot was going, as I seemed to be missing that point of conflict that was pushing the story forward. But it finally came together shortly after that, and things started working towards their conclusion.

Be warned... The Ghost Trap is *not* a "happy feel good" book. The characters are all flawed, and living happily ever after is not in the cards. Even so, Ghost Trap does get under your skin and pulls at you emotionally in ways not always common in today's literature.

Disclosure:

Obtained From: Publisher

Payment: Free

Jamie Eugley is a lobsterman, as was his father and grandfather before him. As with all lobsterman, Jamie fishes his own territory, mindful of never crossing out of it into other fisherman's territories: an unspoken law of the lobstering community. Setting traps in another's territory can lead to loss of monetary items (such as your traps) and even to loss of life. Jamie is settled into his small town community, after having spent two years of his youth out and traveling, winding out in the big city with a big city girlfriend he simply could not understand.

One day Jamie is lobstering with his girlfriend Anja when she gets caught in the lines and goes overboard. By the time Jamie gets her back in the boat and resuscitated, her brain has been deprived of oxygen too long and she is left brain damaged. Feeling it to be his fault, Jamie assumes the responsibility of caring for Anja.

Then someone crosses Jamie's territory, laying traps across his lines. He starts with a reciprocal warning, but the culprit does it again. There are long time rivals to be suspect, but before an all out territory war is started, Jamie needs to find out just who is crossing the line.

'The Ghost Trap' is a mellow paced book of small town life and a close glimpse into the timeless legacy and culture of lobstermen. The characterizations are excellent, especially brain-damaged Anja and Jamie's best friend and fellow lobsterman Thongchai. The novel is well written, particularly for a freshman effort. The story is interesting, though languid rather than breathtaking. It's a comfort book, with both joy and sadness to experience: an excellent bedside book. Four solid stars! Enjoy!

"The Ghost Trap" is the debut novel of K. Stephens, a Maine arts and entertainment writer who has written about schooners, food and wine, and teenagers. She evidently knows quite a bit about the residents of the state, most particularly the subset that lives on the coast and makes their livings as lobstermen.

The book at hand tells the story of Jamie Eugley, a young lobsterman with problems. Well, we've all got problems, but his can't be considered garden variety. Lobstering is a physically demanding occupation, and his back has already gone out. He's got to make a living and pay his bills, of course, on the house, the truck, and the boat. Neal Ames, a clueless new yuppie resident of the town, Owls Head, seems to be fomenting an old-fashioned trap war for his own reasons. And Jamie's fiancée, Anja, whom he loved,suffered brain injury while out with him on his boat: he's been looking after her for three years, and she's not yet recovered. He will, of course, meet another girl, Happy Klein, who's quite a girl, and wants him to go back to Key West, her winter home, with her. So Stephens has herself a story to tell.

She tells it quite well, too. Her descriptive and narrative writing are fine; her dialog snaps, and she seems really to know her subject. Her plot is good, though towards the end, she veers into too much melodrama for me. But, hey, this is a first effort, and a substantial one, too.

Author K. Stephens has made her debut in the fiction genre with a powerful character-driven novel that deserves a wide readership: one well beyond its setting in the chilly coastal waters of Maine.

Jamie Eugley is a 27-year-old lobsterman with a long reputation of being an impulsive hot-head. Yet he's hunkered down into the family business and has developed his own strict work ethic, based mainly on the teachings of his grandfather Maynard. And Jamie has nourished a soft spot, too. He's taking care of Anja, his disabled girlfriend. Emotions and urges continue to pull young Jamie in disparate directions. He's committed to his responsibility for Anja; and yet he still wants to hang out with the local buddies who booze, brawl, play cribbage, and accumulate OUI charges like badges of honor. It's difficult enough to straddle those lines and choose the right path.

But three years in the care-giving role with its intense and nonstop worries are beginning to unravel Jamie. Enter Happy Klein, a charismatic sailor who is up from Florida for the summer. Can Jamie spend time with this new friend without feeling guilty? Or is Happy a contemporary mermaid who will lure him too close to shore and dash him onto the rocks? Always, in the background or under his feet, is the ocean, weaving its own kind of magic. The rekindling of the storied trap war between the Eugleys and the Fogarties merely serves to bring everything to a disturbing climax. Can Jamie ride it all out and survive?

This is not RESORT Maine. This is not what tourists expect to encounter when they come from away. It is not at all what diners think of when they crack open a red carapace, dig out the pink and white meat, and swirl it around in a puddle of sizzling hot butter. The author has offered up a community of characters with real-life flaws here. All of them understand the inherent dangers of living close to the sea.

Even if you're not familiar with Maine -- and even if you think you could care less about the lives of lobstermen -- these compelling individuals anchor your imagination and reel you in for the duration. (!) Readers of either sex who enjoy not only an intriguing plot but also the craftsmanship of fine writing should be directed to pick up this book. You will savor every page. And you might come up with at least three separate identities for the real "ghost trap."

The lobster you eat at the scenic lobster shacks along Maine's coast originates in someone like Jamie Eugley's traps. This is not the shiny Maine of classic Federal homes, Subarus at Whole Foods or shopping along Camden's quaint streets but the grimy, smelly grind of paying the bills as a working fisherman. Where you're up one month, all bills paid, traps all intact and the next, you've lost 100 traps, your boat needs a new engine and well, the insurance bill, it can slide another month can't it?

Jamie is the youngest of three living lobsterman in the same family, all long liners. Eugleys have fished from their midcoast Maine harbor for generations but waterfront access is getting harder to find for someone who needs to service their traps, it's being bought up by rich "second homers" from away. Jamie's girlfriend Anja attends rehab while he's out fishing his 10 hour days, trying to regain her life skills and memory. Jamie's lobsterman best friend Thongchai has had a little drug problem and Jamie's trying to cajole him to get counseling and get his driver's license back.

And into this equation come....

One-a nonlocal who gets a lobster license and dumps his traps in the middle of fishing grounds staked out by locals for decades.

Two-a slow improvement in Anja's abilities

Three-a good looking female schooner bum with a easy-going outlook on life

Good stories don't come from happy people and we watch as Jamie gets lesson after lesson in becoming an adult, resisting peer pressure and finding your path in life. Along the way you learn a bit about lobstering, about being "from away," and the slow death of love. A great debut novel.