Name: The Time of the Ghost
ISBN: 9780060298876

Diana Wynne Jones

The Time of the Ghost

Ryan LaFerney

I am haunted by Diana Wynne Jones' The Time of the Ghost which is quite fitting since the book is about ghost haunting her sisters and trying to figure out her identity.

 The book starts with an unusual beginning: the confused wanderings of a panicked ghost who doesn’t know who she is or what exactly has happened. The unnamed, bodiless narrator knows only two things: that she is one of four sisters, and that there's been a terrible accident. This creates quite a fascinating mystery for the reader. Abd yet, for what seems like a long while, we simply follow the ghost around, perceiving the memories that awaken (in a sort of time slip) as she stumbles across the people and places that she knows once had so much meaning to her. Early on it could be frustrating to read, because a ghost doesn’t have much agency when she can’t talk to anyone or move any objects. However, our ghost learns a few tricks that get her noticed by her sisters and their friends, and the plot rolls along, especially when worship games and blood sacrifices give way to an ancient, evil spirit with a mortal grasp on the living. And this spirits name is Monigan. 

The Worship of Monigan is a game that the four sisters made up, in which an old rag doll supposedly represents the goddess Monigan. Throughout the story, the sisters vary from treating the Worship of Monigan as a game to believing in it quite seriously. Could Monigan been the cause of the accident of our unnamed, bodiless narrator? Well, you'll have to read The Time of the Ghost to find out.

This was an unsettling, supernatural English novel for young adults, one that combines elements of mystery literature, time-travel, and the horror genre to create a story about the perils of messing with the unknown, the horrors of abuse, and the struggle between familiar bonds. The bonds between the sisters are portrayed realistically. And the goddess Monigan (which is a creepy doll) was horrifically rendered as well as some of the pagan rites attached to conjuring Monigan. Some have claimed that the abusive nature of the parents and the boyfriend is not becoming of children's/young adult literature but children and teens are quite aware of the evils within this world and it is not necessarily creepy dolls and goddesses that freak them out. It's those they are close to: parents, friends, lovers abusing them that causes nightmares. I know personally this horror.

As with many of DWJ's novels, the ending is complex and satisfying, and actually has a nice twist that I did not see coming. I was literally shocked at the last few sentences (as well as satisfied). The solution to the problem of Monigan's hold over the ghost is brilliant. 

I plan to re-read this one. I may need to purchase my own copy because according to WorldCat, The Time of the Ghost is not among the twenty works by Jones that are most widely held in participating libraries, and this is a shame.

Janice Hopper

An interesting story about a girl who may or may not be a ghost and her very strange family.

It's very intriguing and interesting to read. I finished it in 2 days. But Diana Wynne Jones rarely disappoints.

Kept me guessing right to the end.

The Time of the Ghost

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