#ghostly reviews

[quillandrapier]

As the final episode has now aired I've finally updated the random ghosts episode generator here (x)

You can change the settings to suit you and toggle off the episodes you've already seen but it might be a nice way to watch the series if you are bored following the usual order.

I'll be using it to post reviews under the tag #Ghosts:AnAutopsy

Enjoy the generator and thank you for the last five years guys. You are what made being a fan of ghosts special

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Compound Fracture

YA thriller set in rural West Virginia

follows an autistic trans boy who survives being almost killed by the Sheriff’s son after a party, and accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him when he tries to get back at him

and is pulled head-first back into the 100 year old feud between his & the sheriff’s families, that began when his great-great grandfather was executed after inciting a miner’s rebellion, the grandfather whose ghost has started to haunt him

community & family & socialist revolution

aro-questioning MC

arc from netgalley, out september 3

[redsamuraiii]

Manga Yokai Stories: Ghostly Tales from Japan

A collection of tales consolidated by a Greek-Irish writer named Lafcadio Hearn who lived in Japan in 1904 and was fascinated by the stories he read and hear that he put them together into a book called “Kwaidan”. He finds the stories fascinating as it’s not the type of horror stories you would expect but rather presented in a different way focusing on the human nature of the ghosts like regrets, anger, loneliness and sorrow. It is essentially a story of letting go of the past and moving on in life as the ghosts return from the dead because they want vengeance against those who wronged them in life, to be with their loved ones who they still miss. Or even wanting a second chance in life after messing up in their unfulfilling life but can’t. So they are unable to die in peace and move on to the next world because their heart and soul are still clinging on to the world, to the past. A page turner filled with interesting stories with plot twists making you wonder if they are able to search for inner peace or what they are looking for and wonder if the story goes the way you expect it to. The illustrations by Inko Ai Takita is simply beautiful, with a blend of typical manga style and a touch of realism to it which helps in the dramatisation of the stories as you can feel the emotions showed by the characters. A good book to read if you’re interested in Japanese culture and folktales. Or if you love art and appreciate the amazing artwork and is more of a visual reader like me who likes reading books with illustrations.

[britishchick09]

@goodbye-little-yellow-bird recommended this self published phantom book and the preview is amazing! i was looking for the full thing...

and discovered that it was originally a 2005 fic!! :o

[polarfarina]

After finishing Good Omens 2 I really was sitting there like "wow that was incredible.... the internet is going to hate this" and yeah. I wish I had been wrong

[miloscat]

[Review] Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (3DS)

This puck has legs after all.

After Inti Creates phoned it in for the first 3DS companion game, Monkey Bar Games handled all versions of the sequel themselves. The result is a 3DS port with (I think) feature parity on the console version, albeit with graphical compromises and fewer enemies populating the levels. PMatGA2 is a pretty simple 3D platformer from a fixed perspective, with the occasional rail shooter/vehicle section/2D zone to mix things up, but the key difference from the first game on 3DS is that this actually feels good to play.

Pac is quick on his feet, has a double jump, and can chomp ghosts in rapid succession, so the action feels snappy. The transformations can slow things down at times but no one section really lasts long enough that it drags. This time, Pac's forms are given to you when necessary and he can only use one at a time, so levels are more often built around their abilities. You're usually jumping between platforming setpieces and mini-combat arenas where a bunch of ghosts spawn in, although these can often just be skipped if you would rather keep moving.

The forms include the returning fire (now with a cool gliding ability), ice, magnet, and chameleon, as well as the more limited rock ball, now joined by the rubber ball form. Also advertised are Pac-Zilla and Pac Kong but these are only used contextually for brief boss fights. The Pac-Zilla fight feels like the stilted Giant Battles in certain Mario & Luigi games, whereas the Kong one is a more engaging beat-down with a T-Rex. Some levels have you do a decent if basic rail shooter sequence, which is where Pac's off-the-rack friends get to have a playable appearance.

The gameplay doesn't change too much from world to world—from the city to an Atlantis take to space to prehistory to the underworld—but each one at least looks distinctive. The story has a little more focus than the perfunctory plot in Inti's effort; there's voice acting here along with interstitial cutscenes. From what I can tell there's a lot of rehashing stuff from the show, but the turncoat ghosts, who I consider to be the most interesting characters, don't have much of a role, sadly. I did learn from in-game bios that Pinky and Cyli, basically the only two female characters in the main cast, have a jealousy subplot over Pac's affections. So that sucks! Makes me all the more glad that the show was cancelled and this new standard for the Pac-Man series has been left in the dust.

I don't have too much more to say on this one. It's never very challenging which is just fine; in fact the game extravagantly throws extra lives at you, such that I was at the max of 99 in world 2 and never dipped below 95. It's just an easy, breezy 3D platformer which is a nice thing to have on a portable in particular. I would like to take this opportunity to have one final dig at the design of Pac himself, which is just so ugly, especially when he makes any kind of facial expression that's not the classic "wide open eyes and mouth". Rest in pieces, Ghostly Adventures.

[pointlessprism]

Did I gaslight myself into thinking that someone did an episode by episode full review of Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures?

[sinceileftyoublog]

Julie Byrne Album Review: The Greater Wings

(Ghostly International)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Albums billed as being shaped by grief often don't follow linear rules, or at least a perfect pipeline of death to grief to songwriting. Famously, when Jeff Tweedy sang, "Tall buildings shake / Voices escape singing sad sad songs," on "Jesus Etc.", released in 2002, many listeners thought the line to be about 9/11, even though Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was finished before the attacks. More recently, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Skeleton Tree hit shelves after his son Arthur tragically died from a fall; during its recording sessions, Cave amended many of the album's lyrics, which had been initially written by the time his son passed away, but to this day we don't know exactly what changed. On the title track to singer-songwriter Julie Byrne's new album The Greater Wings, she declares she will "name my grief to let it sing," rendering that grief a living, breathing entity, almost a character in the album. Halfway through the making of the record, Byrne's creative partner Eric Littmann suddenly passed away. After shelving it for six months, Byrne completed the album with producer Alex Somers, her first time in a conventional recording studio. The result is a stunning canvas of reflection on things that are no longer for this world, from people to relationships, filtered through Byrne's blue-colored glasses.

Really, a more apt timeline for comparison to The Greater Wings is Bell Witch's Mirror Reaper, an album that acts as a tribute to a former member while including documents of their physical presence, more living artifact than ghost. On Mirror Reaper, it was the late Adrian Guerra's voice; here, Littmann's synthesizers shine throughout the record, like his arpeggios harmonizing with Marilu Donovan's harp on "Summer Glass" and his wobbly instrumentation on "Conversation Is A Flowstate". To see how Byrne and Somers owned the material from there is breathtaking. It's hard to remember that before her previous record, Not Even Happiness, Byrne was a DIY folk singer. That album's glassy closing track "I Live Now As A Singer" not only informed The Greater Wings' expanded aesthetic, but it's proven to be a total turning point in Byrne's career. The production flourishes and additional instrumentation on The Greater Wings are sometimes subtle, but they move mountains. Synthesizers shimmer alongside acoustic guitar on the title track. Somers' backing vocals on "Portrait Of A Clear Day" nestle among Byrne's lead vocal turn, Donovan's harp, and Jake Falby's strings. "I get so nostalgic for you sometimes," Byrne sings, her hazy memories perfectly contrasting the crispness of the music.

In fact, contrast is a defining feature of The Greater Wings. On emotional centerpiece "Summer Glass", Byrne's words consist of recollections of specific moments in time ("You lit my joint with the end of your cigarette," "The tattoo you gave me lying in bed"), all-encompassing devotionals ("You are the family that I chose"), and broad therapeutic goals ("I want to be whole enough to risk again"). Even the instrumental "Summer's End" showcases the tactility of Donovan's harp against the atmospheric wash of the synthesizers and echoing bells. And Somers added textures to Littman's initial work on "Conversation Is A Flowstate", making it a harmonic, yet percussive and conversational push-pull as Byrne recites affirmations: "Permission to feel it, it's alright / Permission to grieve, it is alright / Healing can be heartbreaking, it's alright."

Making yourself "whole," or as close to it as possible, is not an easy or definite process, in life or in music. Even on a song like "Flare", Byrne goes through multiple so-called "stages of grief," including bargaining and acceptance, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's modular synth buoying her words. The Greater Wings, then, is as close to universal art as it gets, a treatise on the human penchant for imperfection, for being naturally unable to fully appreciate something while it's there. "I tell you now what for so long I did not say / That if I have no right to want you / I want you anyway," Byrne sings with smoky heartbreak on "Lightning Comes Up From The Ground", a title that makes literal what happens when an event in your life shakes you to your core: It turns your world upside-down.

[thegirlandthewardrobe]

Ghostly Touches by Salem Cross

~5/5⭐

*Sighhhhh* This was SUCH a fun read y'all! It's been awhile since I've enjoyed a RH novel this much, and what a refreshing story at that! With a badass heroine and a few grumpy, groveling, and monster like men, this book was everything I needed and more😩 I went into this book with zero knowledge or any idea of what to expect, and honestly that made it soooo much more enjoyable. I also feel like this is one of those books that makes more sense if you just read it your self? I know that sounds a little questionable, but trust me on this one! With that being said.....I'm gonna spare you all the long review, in hopes that you'll just trust me on this one and read this book.

As Always,

Happy Reading❤️

[ghostmadewithlove]

Might just not go to class today and just chill in the library

[melaniem54]

Review: Ghostly Dilemma (Ghostly Book 8) by E M Leya

Rating:  4.5🌈 The Ghostly series by EM Leya is going strong as demonstrated by Ghostly Dilemma, the eighth book in this excellent paranormal law enforcement series.  With the romantic relationship between ME Lance and Det. Angus is happy and they’ve moved in together, along with their dog Haunt.  Frank, Angus’ partner has recently bought a home, and Lance’s older brother is leaving the military…

[quillandrapier]

Just a heads up, if you don't want my reviews clogging up the dashboard (which fair enough) you can mute the tag #ghostly reviews which should mean they don't all come up...but please do read them if you like! Trying to be thoughtful with them.

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Audio: Brijean Shares Lush and Cinematic Lullaby "Euphoric Avenue"

New Audio: Brijean Shares Lush and Cinematic Lullaby "Euphoric Avenue" @BrijeanBand @ghostly @pitchperfectpr

Brijean is an acclaimed indie pop project that features:  Brijean Murphy, a Los Angeles-born percussionist, who can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood: Murphy’s father Patrick is a percussionist and engineer, who taught a young Brijean her first patterns on a pair of congas that she inherited from the late Trinidadian steel pan drum legend Vince Charles. As a percussionist,…

[annafromuni]

William Ritter's The Dire King - An Ending Rushed?

As the final book in William Ritter’s Jackaby series, The Dire King had a couple of things to do: wrap up a rather busy but interesting story, tie up loose ends with plot lines and characters, give a few conclusions for the romantic relationships that have been brewing since Jackaby. Unfortunately, it seems that too many cooks spoil the broth as elements of the narrative started to slip through…

[gbhbl]

EP Review: Ghostly Times - MIRAGE (Self Released)

Ghostly Times are in a creatively exciting place, where they are expanding on their rock sound, keeping it focused on effective melodic beauty, and still showing how capable they are at putting smiles on faces.

Brooklyn, New York rock band Ghostly Times are back with a brand-new EP called ‘MIRAGE’. The EP was released on April 12th, 2024, and is the long-awaited follow-up to their 2017 debut full-length album, ‘When All That’s Left Is Grey’. It’s been a long time since I wrapped my ears around Ghostly Times, and having thoroughly enjoyed the debut album, as well as the 2018 single ‘The Sender’, I can…

[cattatonically]

Gateway Catastrophe - Louisa Masters (Ghostly Guardians, book 4)

Synopsis

It only took seconds for my world to change…

I live a simple, small-town life. Helping with the family restaurant, my side gig as a ride-share driver, hanging with my best friend, making the most of the extra time with my ghost grandma. The only exciting thing to happen to me in the past year was when Gabe moved to town—too bad Nonna scared him off. It’s hard to impress a guy when your dead grandmother calls him the devil.

The last thing I expect when I pick up a ride-share client and take him to Mannix Estate is that he’s a demon. An actual, breathing, can-kill-me-with-a-thought demon. That night blows my simple life apart and changes everything. Turns out, ghosts aren’t the weirdest things out there, my best friend and Gabe are both part of this alternate world, and there’s a big bad demon who wants to end us all. What’s a small-town boy to do but roll up his sleeves and join the fight to save the world?

Working side by side with Gabe reminds me just how much I liked him when we first met… and the feeling’s mutual. As the clock counts down and we both struggle with personal issues, it’s good to know there’s someone to lean on. But I don’t know if our tenuous connection can survive the hell that’s coming and see us through to the other side.

My Thoughts

When a very, very handsome demon arrives at Mannix Estate and offers to team up in order to stop the end of the world, things get tense. But when that same demon drops the bomb that certain families within the Collective – the organization that Gabe and Connor have been a part of their whole lives – have conspired with the demons intent on bringing on the end of the world. Well. Things become a little catastrophic.

As they try to come up with a plan to stop the Collective and demons plotting destruction, Tom and Gabe grow closer together. While the timing is a little bad, they do work well together. They support each other, but acknowledge that coming up with a plan of action comes first. But that definitely doesn’t stop them from getting a little action for themselves.

The stronger their relationship becomes, the stronger the Mannix family becomes, too. They’re determined to stop the end of the world, and will accomplish this task by any means necessary. Which they do. Completely.

And while this series comes to an end, with very happy endings for our Mannix family, there’s still shit to take care of at the Collective. And with a new series on the horizon – featuring a very handsome, and helpful, demon – I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s next.