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Guestbook: Ghost Stories Hardcover – March 26, 2019

by Leanne Shapton (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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"Reading [Guestbook] feels akin to walking through an art exhibit, each piece linked in ways that are ineffable but clear. . . yearning, like a ghost, lingers long after the stories are done." --NPR

One of our most imaginative writers and artists explores the visitations that haunt us in the midst of life, and reinvents the very way we narrate experience.

A tennis prodigy collapses after his wins, crediting them to an invisible, not entirely benevolent presence. A series of ghosts appear at their former bedsides, some distraught, some fascinated, to witness their unfamiliar occupants. A woman returns from a visit to Alcatraz with an uncomfortable feeling. The spirit of a prisoner has attached himself to you, a friend tells her. He sensed the sympathy you had for those men. In more than two dozen stories and vignettes, accompanied by an evocative curiosity cabinet of artifacts and images, Guestbook beckons us through the glimmering, unsettling evidence that marks our paths in life.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Riverhead Books
  4. Publication date
    March 26, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    6.2 x 0.95 x 8.76 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0399158189
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0399158186
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Guestbook: Ghost Stories, Leanne Shapton,picture books for adults, illustrated books for adults

Guestbook: Ghost Stories, Leanne Shapton,picture books for adults, illustrated books for adults

Guestbook: Ghost Stories, Leanne Shapton,picture books for adults, illustrated books for adults

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Reading [Guestbook] feels akin to walking through an art exhibit, each piece linked in ways that are ineffable but clear. . . Guestbook blurs the lines between haunting and reality. . . Certainly, Shapton suffuses both art and text with longing. . . That yearning, like a ghost, lingers long after the stories are done.” —NPR

“The exquisite minimalism that defines Shapton’s style hews much closer to verse than prose. Shapton’s thoughtful layout of text and her use of images sets a deliberate, poetic pace. She invites her readers to slow down, to linger, to let the language percolate . . . Through the immersive, wholly original reading experience of Guestbook, Shapton has bested herself yet again, masterfully elevating the ghost story form to new heights.” -LA Review of Books

“Strange in the way that being haunted must inevitably be strange . . . Guestbook is best appreciated as a portable art installation. The book is enigmatic at every turn, but gorgeously realized. It pushes the boundaries of both ‘ghost’ and ‘story,’ and the discomfort that it creates crawls beyond the covers of the book and into the mind, haunting long after the last page.” –New York Journal of Books

“A mesmerizing pastiche of found photos, original art, and dinner party anecdotes that answer the question ‘What haunts us?’ with evidence so chilling, you’ll keep flipping through the fear.” –Martha Stewart Living
 
“Shapton combines found and original visuals with unsettling, evocative stories to capture the sensation of what it feels like to try to remember a dream upon waking.”–Harper’s Bazaar

“Persistently uncanny . . . Shapton’s prose will leave you craving more... tactile, mysterious and seductive.” – The Guardian

“The writing and images are equal parts funny, spooky, and devastating, and by the time I was done reading I felt haunted myself.” –The Rumpus

“Part evidence log, part crime scrapbook, part secret diary, part lost family photo album, Leanne Shapton’s Guestbook is a mesmerizing collection of texts and images that builds more like a symphony than a novel. Each distinct chapter . . . elevates the traditional ghost story into an art form.” –Interview Magazine

“Trained as an art director, each of Shapton’s books are carefully constructed objects . . . Shapton’s stories create wells of meaning from the shadows cast by items left behind; these hauntings, full of memories and longings, are visceral . . . Guestbook is a melancholy ode to people lost and a celebration of what they leave behind.” –Brooklyn Rail

“Full of unconventional storytelling. . . Guestbook also has wonderful moments of humor that reminds us that just because we are being haunted, doesn’t mean we can’t laugh.” –FLAUNT Magazine

“Entirely original . . . Shapton ekes ghostly mystery out of few words . . .  Like the spiritual world that inspired it, Guestbook draws eerie, tantalizing power from moments of confusion. It throws into question the meanings of what we read and what we think we see.” –Hyperallergic

“Perfectly uncanny . . . unsettling us in sometimes terrifying and sometimes exhilarating ways. Shapton’s words are interwoven with images of art and artifacts, adding to the surreal aura of each of the stories, reminding us of the always pulsing energy that imbues nearly everything around us, always, whether we feel it right away or not.” –NYLON

“What makes this new collection so remarkable is what occurs off the page, in the blank places between its sparse text and its abundant images . . .  These stories are irreducible and insoluble, and that’s their glory.” –TOR.com

“The multitalented Leanne Shapton presents us with another unclassifiable treasure! Guestbook is a collection of stories . . . narrated in Shapton’s inimitably offbeat style.” –Largehearted Boy

“This clever and evocative volume...collects ghost stories ranging from the eerie to the tender . . . Shapton inventively explores the space between presence and absence, craftily blending images and text to articulate what cannot be explained, only sensed, making for a uniquely haunting and uncanny work.” –Publishers Weekly
 
“A surreal look at everyday happenings, which is sure to leave you feeling uneasy in a good way.” –Domino Magazine

“Diffuse and eerie . . . We may not always get to see the lives of others, Shapton seems to say, but still they were here. A strange and haunting art project.” –Kirkus Reviews

“’Ghost’ is a good word for all the nameless longing that doesn’t get resolved in this lifetime. Shapton has created a mystical territory — a performance, an exhibition,  a guestbook — in which I felt the ghost within myself; the thing that will outlive me. A fearless and exquisite book."
– Miranda July, filmmaker, artist, and bestselling author of No One Belongs Here More Than You and The First Bad Man
 
“Guestbook reveals Shapton as a ventriloquist, a diviner, a medium, a force, a witness, a goof, and above all, a gift. One of the smartest, most moving, most unexpected books I have read in a very long time.” – Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances and Little Labors

“Leanne Shapton has a way of making books entirely new, surreal, and uncanny, always experimenting with the ways image and text can be mixed to tell new stories, in new ways. Guestbook is a delicious haunting and leaves one with a chill of recognition for how we live as ghosts in this distant, distracted, and image-obsessed time.” – Sheila Heti, Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?

About the Author

Leanne Shapton is an artist and author of several books, including Swimming Studies (winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography), Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, and a coauthor of the New York Times-bestselling Women in Clothes. She is also the cofounder of J&L Books, a nonprofit publisher of art and photography books. She lives in New York City.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books; Illustrated edition (March 26, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0399158189
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399158186
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.039 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 0.95 x 8.76 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

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Leanne Shapton

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
31 global ratings
Not a Traditional Short Story Collection but oh, so original and intriguing
4 Stars
Not a Traditional Short Story Collection but oh, so original and intriguing
A one-of-a-kind, truly unique reading experience, GUESTBOOK: Ghost Stories will alight and frighten and also leave a deep residue begging for another look.A blisteringly original artist, Leanne Shapton's GUESTBOOK (Riverhead, March 2019) isn't quite an art book, isn't quite a traditional narrative, but here, she effortlessly and brilliantly combines so many different art forms into one highly intriguing experience.Writing is no doubt an art form, but here, it's elevated to something wholly original. Just a few adjectives that come to mind with this collection of photographs and narrative:Uneasy...disturbing...unsettling...haunting...brilliant....strange...dark...wonderful...uncanny....fearless...exacting...a curiosity cabinet.Combining layers of visual art in the form of photographs, drawings, floorplans, original paintings, Instagram-style portraits...this collection is about short passages, vignettes, observations, wordplay, and so much more. It's about loneliness and social media, and the passage of time. While one might be tempted to race through the book in one sitting, it's probably best suited for picking up and putting down over the course of time.Leave room to dwell on the white space, let it glimmer and coalesce.Because it will and it should.L.Lindsay|Always with a Book
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Top reviews from the United States

Lydia
5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous book.
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2019
Leanne never ceases to amaze me with her creativity and style

One gets the sense of a being a child catching tidbits of scary stories / myths they overhear from elders.
One person found this helpful
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Leslie Lindsay
4.0 out of 5 stars Not a Traditional Short Story Collection but oh, so original and intriguing
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019
A one-of-a-kind, truly unique reading experience, GUESTBOOK: Ghost Stories will alight and frighten and also leave a deep residue begging for another look.

A blisteringly original artist, Leanne Shapton's GUESTBOOK (Riverhead, March 2019) isn't quite an art book, isn't quite a traditional narrative, but here, she effortlessly and brilliantly combines so many different art forms into one highly intriguing experience.

Writing is no doubt an art form, but here, it's elevated to something wholly original. Just a few adjectives that come to mind with this collection of photographs and narrative:

Uneasy...disturbing...unsettling...haunting...brilliant....strange...dark...wonderful...uncanny....fearless...exacting...a curiosity cabinet.

Combining layers of visual art in the form of photographs, drawings, floorplans, original paintings, Instagram-style portraits...this collection is about short passages, vignettes, observations, wordplay, and so much more. It's about loneliness and social media, and the passage of time. While one might be tempted to race through the book in one sitting, it's probably best suited for picking up and putting down over the course of time.Leave room to dwell on the white space, let it glimmer and coalesce.

Because it will and it should.

L.Lindsay|Always with a Book
Customer image
Leslie Lindsay
4.0 out of 5 stars Not a Traditional Short Story Collection but oh, so original and intriguing
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019
A one-of-a-kind, truly unique reading experience, GUESTBOOK: Ghost Stories will alight and frighten and also leave a deep residue begging for another look.

A blisteringly original artist, Leanne Shapton's GUESTBOOK (Riverhead, March 2019) isn't quite an art book, isn't quite a traditional narrative, but here, she effortlessly and brilliantly combines so many different art forms into one highly intriguing experience.

Writing is no doubt an art form, but here, it's elevated to something wholly original. Just a few adjectives that come to mind with this collection of photographs and narrative:

Uneasy...disturbing...unsettling...haunting...brilliant....strange...dark...wonderful...uncanny....fearless...exacting...a curiosity cabinet.

Combining layers of visual art in the form of photographs, drawings, floorplans, original paintings, Instagram-style portraits...this collection is about short passages, vignettes, observations, wordplay, and so much more. It's about loneliness and social media, and the passage of time. While one might be tempted to race through the book in one sitting, it's probably best suited for picking up and putting down over the course of time.Leave room to dwell on the white space, let it glimmer and coalesce.

Because it will and it should.

L.Lindsay|Always with a Book
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One person found this helpful
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Victoria Cunningham
2.0 out of 5 stars Not scary, at all.
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
Verified Purchase
I liked nothing about this book, very disappointing I will never rely on a recommendation from Martha Stewart magazine.
7 people found this helpful
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Fenrix
3.0 out of 5 stars This feels more like a poetry collection than a story collection
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2019
The thought of ghost stories has me anticipating M.R. James, so there was a distinct sense of vertigo when I started reading this collection. This feels more like a poetry collection than a story collection, as the prose tends to end rather than conclude. I found the story “Billy Byron” promising with its creepypasta hints of a supernatural influence on Billy’s tennis career.
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Top reviews from other countries

LoomingOCD
1.0 out of 5 stars Fiction as art.
Reviewed in Canada on November 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
I can understand where the author was trying to go but this work failed. It may have been more effective as a physical work but as a kindle edition it really didn't. More details about the spectres and how they related to the photographs was needed.
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SR
5.0 out of 5 stars Special
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
Beautiful and haunting
One person found this helpful
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Callum Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars New ways to tell ghost stories
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is a really cool and interesting book! A collection of short stories, many of which feature hauntings of some sort, this book is a genuinely beautiful physical artefact as well as containing some wholly novel ways to present stories.

If you enjoy seeing novel approaches to story telling, as well as low key eeriness, then this is the boom for you! Crack on and read it!
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Charlie99
3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I thought.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2019
Verified Purchase
Disappointed. Only got half way through. Not completely as described.
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