Ghost Camera by Darcy Coates – A Review

Book blurb:

When Jenine finds an abandoned camera in a lighthouse, she takes a photo for fun. But there’s something very, very wrong with the picture: it contains ghosts.

Jenine and her best friend, Bree, realise the camera is capable of capturing the dead. But with each new photo taken, the spectres become more aware and more alert, and begin following the friends. Desperate, Jenine seeks the help of a paranormal researcher. He only has bad news, though: they’ve meddled with something far beyond their control, and the ghosts won’t stop… not until Jenine and Bree are dead.

Author: Darcy Coates

Publisher: Black Owl Books

Release Date: 29/07/2014

Genre: Horror

Pages: 130

My chosen format to read: Kindle

My rating of ‘Ghost Camera’: 3.5 out of 5

Purchase ‘Ghost Camera’: Amazon.co.uk/Amazon.com/Book Depository

Book Review:

Please note the ‘blurb’ is the one listed on Amazon’s sale page.

I will start off with the cover as, in most cases it will be the first thing a prospective reader sees. I won’t lie; I am not overly blown away by it. It doesn’t really give much insight into the book and appears to be used solely for a creepy feel more so than anything meaningful about the title. In essence it’s a nice-looking cover. It just doesn’t seem to relate to the title at first glance. It almost has a generic feel to it. Now on to the meat of the review; the book:

Ghost Camera, penned by Darcy Coates, an author with a dozen or more horror titles under her belt (some of short length, some middling and some long) is a breath of fresh air to the horror genre. It tells the story of Jenine; a young girl who finds a camera capable of capturing images of the dead. Unbeknownst to her, and the unwitting friend she shares her find with, the camera is more than just a bit of fun. The premise of Ghost Camera is certainly enough to make amateur ghost hunters such as myself stop and think ‘do I really want to take a picture in the hopes of capturing an orb, or some form of apparition?’  

The overall style of the book certainly makes a change from the oft-used tactic of modern horror authors (I’m going to ply you with gore galore to try to give you the creeps). That being said, it’s not totally devoid of blood, but the use is minimal and adds to the story rather than just getting thrown in for effect.

The scenes with the ghosts aren’t overdone and I feel the author provides excellent imagery. So much so that my reading at night on my kindle paperwhite, by candle light, often had my mind playing tricks on me with the shadows cast about the room.

As you can see by the length, Amazon has it listed at 130 pages, it’s a fairly short read. This doesn’t detract at all. You get a complete story without unwanted padding, another thing a lot of novels are guilty of these days. The overall pace is very fast and enjoyable. I blew through it in a couple of nights worth of reading. I found the story to be both enjoyable and very well written. My only gripe would be that there were some pretty elementary typos and misses by the editor. Gave it a somewhat sloppy and un-polished feel in places.

As you can probably tell, I plan on setting my reviews out as the book is set: cover, manuscript, blurb.

The blurb, in my honest opinion, felt a bit naïve. It almost had the feel that it was written by a teenager rather than an author or publisher. It could just be that I am either expecting too much or simply being a tad harsh, but it just sounded to me like whoever wrote the blurb was trying way too hard to make it full of suspense. In fact, the blurb’s suspense factor felt a little bit shoe-horned in. I suppose this is a good example of not judging a book by its cover, or its blurb for that matter, as I thoroughly enjoyed the subject matter between the covers.