Ghost Wall
By Sarah Moss
(fiction, 152 pages, 2018)
Ghost Wall chronicles a family’s two-week stay in the woods of Northumberland in North East England. This setting is all too important – Northumberland is known as a prehistoric stronghold with evidence of early civilization found in rock structures and hillforts across the county.
The family accompanies a group of young students and their professor for an excursion of what is deemed “experimental archaeology” as they all try to live as one would during the Iron Age. The odd group, tunic-clad and eager, forages, traps, slaughters, and sings in an attempt to re-enact and re-imagine how the land was once lived upon.
Tensions grow higher as the legends of the area begin to test the sanity of the group and as boredom and fear rise in the younger members. Moss brilliantly reworks iron age ritual into a modern day mentality that leaves the reader questioning how much humanity has really changed throughout time.
Ghost Wall masterfully addresses complicated issues of masculinity, family ties, and the complexities of imagination in its brief 150 pages. Though a bit of a “dark” story, it is encapsulating and is perfect for those looking for a quick read that pulls you in and draws you back out with a new perspective.
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Laura Judge
