Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia: A Wonderful Book that Defies Genres (book review)

GENRE: Adult Mystery Adventure

LENGTH: 359 pages

 

PLOT

A billionaire, Vincent Pryce, dies and leaves behind a game set across the city of Boston with clues inspired by his love of Edgar Alan Poe. Tuesday Mooney, her best friend Dex, her neighbor Dorry, and her love interest Archie all play in the hopes of acquiring different prizes.

 

CHARACTERS

Despite its title only highlighting one name, there are four main characters in this book. The book seems to be taking on the message of embracing your ability to mold your own life and not being bogged down by the past. However, I’d argue it’s actually more about connection.

Tuesday’s childhood best friend went missing never to be found and this has led to her being unable to form close connections with others as an adult. She even holds Dex at a distance despite his desire to be close and support her. Dex works in finance but in the past loved performing and makeup. The realities of adulthood led him to no longer embracing but rather abandoning these interests making him lose connection to his true self.

Archie is charming yet aloof and for a good chunk of the novel we don’t really know what his endgame is. Eventually, we come to understand Archie has become disconnected from his family. At the same time, while he and Tuesday have this sparking chemistry, they struggle to connect as both are holding each other at arms’ length due to their pasts Finally, Dorry is a young girl who has lost her mother. She longs to find a way to ‘see’ her mother again. She has also become disconnected with her father who has become distant and despondent since his wife’s death.

So, while all these characters are playing the same game, they each have their own reward their seeking; for Tuesday and Archie it’s to open themselves to others, for Dex I’s finding himself again, and for Dorry it’s about acceptance. Each characters’ stories touched me deeply. Archie was probably my favorite because his story line is the most mysterious and complicated. Ultimately, though, I was rooting for all of them. Racculia did an excellent job of weaving these characters’ stories together while also giving them lots of individuality and depth. If you’re a writer who want to improve your characterizations then I suggest reading this book as a great example to learn from.

 

WRITING

            The novel is told through the third person perspectives of Tuesday, Dex, Archie, and Dorry. In addition to the themes of molding your own life and connection, the novel also deals heavily with grief and guilt. Also, trigger warning for domestic/familial violence.

  Something I often get compliments on as a writer is my dialogue. This book has some of the best dialogue I’ve read in some time. It’s quite witty with entertaining banter between the characters. It adds some lightness to an otherwise serious story.

            The plot of this book is a wild ride. Up until the ending I really had no clue how it was going to conclude. I’ve been going through a semi-reading slump these past couple of months, so it was great to have a book that I was eager to pick up because I needed to know what was going to happen next! This book does such a fabulous job of combining the light fun of a scavenger hunt across a city alongside the heaviness of its themes.

            I think this book’s greatest pitfall is its title. That’s unfortunate, because a title, in addition to the cover, is the first impression a reader will have of a book. While this book is lightly supernatural, the title makes it sound like it’s going to be a story about a medium. I also don’t like having a character name in the title when there is more than one prominent protagonist in the book

            I also worry that this book might be hard to market as it doesn’t slot easily into a genre. I classified it as a mystery because of the whole solving clues and the questions surrounding Archie. Yet if you look on Goodreads you’ll see that popular tags for this book include mystery, mystery-thriller, paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary. A book doesn’t have to fit snugly into a singular genre (I actually prefer when they don’t), but I just wish this book had a clear one to assign as I feel that would help to attract the right reader. I make these comments on the title and genre not to criticize the book but instead because I think this book is fantastic and deserves lots of readers - I just don’t want readers to feel misled.

          

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is one of my favorite books of the year so far. I loved the characters, the wacky plot, and the themes it tackles. This is an all-around great book that I highly, highly recommend. I just hope it ends up in the hands of the right reader who will appreciate it as I did.

 

FINAL RATING: 5⭐️