Paper Ghosts follows two separate storylines, one focused on Willamena Wester in 1976 and the second focused on Bailey Wester in present time. Readers are introduced to the Wester women, who have lived in their house for decades and who the town avoids because somehow, the Wester matriarch, Willamena's grandmother, seems to know things that she shouldn't, things that keep the order she likes with a simple whisper in the right ear. Willamena ends up falling for a stranded musician, something she needs to keep secret, something that is just for her, at least until her grandmother finds out and she is forced to make a decision that changes everything. In present time, Willamena is trying to change things for her granddaughter Bailey, making new choices and hiding things about the Wester family. Trying to keep history from keeping her granddaughter stuck in their house, she forces her out into the world even though all Bailey wanted was to stay with her grandmother. Now things are changing again and Bailey has returned home for the answers and the secrets that have been kept from her.
First of all, Allen has done it again, creating the perfect small town world that feels like the kind of place that would be the setting for something magical. Allen has a way with creating a town that has a twist of difference, where readers can feel at home and where wondrous things could be possible. In this town, the people feel real because of their struggles and their secrets and their pain. I loved the little traditions that Allen added to the town, where people could get tea-themed ice cream at a local shop and apparently everything was named with a chicken theme in mind because of the town's name. All of these details added whimsy and yet at the same time, felt like it could be a real place. Every setting in Allen's books are like this and when opening this book, I knew I was coming in to a place where something more was possible again and it's something that I always look forward to when it comes to an Allen book. Every turn of phrase can conjure images, weaving an almost fairytale quality to the writing. Allen has always been a talented writer and does not disappoint with the talebshe has woven here.
The characters this time around though were a little more tragic for me than usual. I felt so sad for Willamena and the dreams she had and the control that was used to decide every part of her life. I wanted her to achieve everything she wanted and I loved when she took a chance and fell for a musician. At the same time, I felt so sad for Bailey, living with the Wester name in modern times and with maybe not so much overt control as had been seen with Willamena but still being led down a certain path by her grandmother, as had been done before. I felt so much heartache for these women, wishing for different things and suffering consequences for things outside their control. I wanted these characters to have more and because of that, I feel like this book left things on a quieter note for them. Not necessarily happy but maybe more at peace with the way things turned out. Still, I wanted more time with them, for readers to spend more time with them and for Willamena and Bailey to have spent more time together on the page. Unfortunately, it felt like these two spent more time apart, talking about each other while doing other things rather than spending that time together and that made me feel a little disappointed.
This leads me to the plot. It felt like the kind of story that was geared more towards quiet contemplation by the time the ending hits. I thought it was interesting to show how determined Willamena was to be different from her own grandmother, only to turn around and change things she thought she had a right to do, repeating the past for her own granddaughter and understanding that enough to try to change it again before Bailey becomes a permanent fixture in the house. But after spending the time that we did with Willamena as a teenager and then Bailey growing up, I thought the book would then go through a segment where we see both characters in present time together, working through what it meant to be a Wester and how Willamena wanted Bailey to be able to finally escape their town. Bailey has had to return home, something she is only doing because of the circumstances that are calling her home and I thought it meant that she would spend more time with her grandmother, working through the heartache she felt at losing the life she thought she wanted and what she thought being a Wester meant. Instead, after all the development that we were given about the Wester women, their legacy and the particulars of these specific Wester women, Bailey only spends a few days having tea with her grandmother and then something happens and is revealed and then POOF, we're done with the book. My lasting thought is still, "That's it?" The book just kind of ends, with only a little hope left for the characters and it feels incomplete. I still love these characters and the ideas that Allen put in this book, I just wanted to spend more time with them. The book just ends and because of that, while I love the book, I didn't LOVE it.
Still, this is a quietly moving book and for that alone, I am grateful I had the chance to read it. I loved the town and the people that were in it, just like I expect to do when I open an Allen book. That being said, I wanted to stay in this town longer. I wanted to force Willamena and Bailey to finally talk together. As a result, I feel like I'm left holding some threads of the book that didn't get the finish I thought they would and that leaves me a little dissatisfied overall.
Rating on my Scale: 7.5 Stars. This is a very respectable entry for Allen's shelf of magic but it hasn't taken down my favorite from its pedestal. Read for the usual magical prose and settings that fill Allen's books. I hope that Allen might go back to this town again and gives us another chance to spend time with the Wester family.
My thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Sarah Addison Allen for the eARC of this book in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.
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