Ghosts of Harvard, by Francesca Serritella (Random House, 2020)
First line: “It was silly to be afraid of falling, considering her intent, but Cady hadn’t anticipated how windy it would be on the bridge.”
The day Cady’s father and aunt drop her off at Harvard, she’s feeling understandably overwhelmed. Not only is it her first day of college at one of the most elite universities in the country, but Harvard’s campus is also where her older brother Eric died by suicide less than a year ago. And despite her mother’s desperate pleas for Cady to choose a different place to start her college career, Cady is determined to be in place where Eric struggled and died, to find out just what really happened. Cady knows he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but is sure there was more to the story. But before long, she soon is hearing voices that no one else can hear, and she starts to wonder if Eric’s mental illness is genetic.
There is a LOT going on in this campus novel: mental illness, family drama, ghosts, sexual harassment, theoretical physics, Russian spies… all of which push it to be more than 500 pages. I don’t tend to read books of that length very often (as I’m a bit obsessive with my completion percentage when reading digitally or comparing page chunks when reading physically), but I surprisingly never felt the length of this one! Serritella plays with suspense and keeps the story moving, and I never felt bogged down. I was swept up with Cady as her desperation grows, and I had to know how it was all going to end. There were definitely times when I felt the need to suspend disbelief, but those sorts of things don’t usually bother me much. I was reading this to escape, not to learn about mental illness or theoretical physics. (That being said, I don’t know Serritella’s background with mental illness, and as I have no personal experience with schizophrenia or suicide, I wondered if those parts felt authentic to readers who do have that experience.)
Without being too spoilery, I did feel like the ending was a bit… far-fetched and it wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be. Her conversation with her parents at the end felt very Scooby-Doo Reveal to me, and both the 5-years-later chapter and the epilogue (what? there are both? why on earth?) felt unnecessary.
Overall, this one kept me on the edge of my seat with my adrenaline pumping, which, looking back, might not have been the best choice for middle of the night nursing reading… I liked the thrill of it, thought she presented mental illness with the complexity it deserved, and loved the college campus setting. It got me in the mood for more campus reads, actually.
I thought this was compelling, but didn’t entirely love it. If campus novels, mysteries, and ghost stories are your cup of tea, though, give this one a try! It’s on sale May 5th!
Thank you to Random House via NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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