Ghost Eaters

Chapman’s brilliant novel is part ghost story, part addiction narrative, and all white-knuckle horror.

The painful sharpness with which the characters are drawn seems to indicate they could only have come out of real life; regardless of whether this is true, readers who have known anyone who has struggled with addiction will surely recognize these characters.

It’s a book that hurts in the way that the best horror is supposed to.

Ghost Eaters is a deep dive into the horrors of addiction. While the focus is largely on substance abuse, the book also explores love addiction and grief in fresh ways. Erin, the protagonist, loses her graduate school friend and love to an overdose. As she tries to explore the details of Silas’ final days, she finds herself mixed up in a new drug—one that allows the user to communicate with the dead. Discovering what happened to Silas, leads Erin to learn far more about herself and her own addictive personality than it does about Silas or his final days.  

Clay McLeod Chapman is a writer whose name horror readers will soon know far and wide! In this book about grief and haunting, he does for mushrooms what Psycho did for the shower, what Jaws did for the beach! It’s a fast, terrifying read you won’t regret picking up, and you won’t be able to put it down.