Name: Essence's review of The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
Item: The Saturday Night Ghost Club
Rating: 4
Author: Essence

Craig Davidson

"A charismatic cast of misfits, losers, and bruisers animate this winning novel set in Niagara Falls, a.k.a. Cataract City--a slightly seedy, slightly magical, slightly haunted place, where seemingly ordinary lives are steeped in secrets, desires, troubled histories, and the occasional splash of mayhem. Like Ilium, New York, in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, or Castle Rock, New England, in the fiction of Stephen King--or even Hawkins, Indiana, in the Netflix sensation Stranger Things, Cataract City is an invented world where lost innocence mingles with the darker shades and sharper corners of humanity. Saturday Night Ghost Club is a short, irresistible, and bittersweet coming-of-age story about a small group of kids who, under the leadership of an eccentric uncle, spend one summer investigating the validity of local ghost stories and macabre urban myths--in almost every instance getting in way over their heads. With warmth, skill, and striking, cinematic imagery, and a rare gift for conjuring totally original, unexpected, and unforgettable set pieces and tableaus that strike the reader as immediately iconic--Davidson draws us into his gritty world, reminding us that life's strange intensity and occasional magic is all around us."--

The Saturday Night Ghost Club

A short, infectious, and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends. Finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. When neurosurgeon Jake Baker operates, he knows he's handling more than a patient's delicate brain tissue--he's altering the seat of consciousness, the golden vault of memory. And memory, Jake knows well, can be a tricky, quicksilver thing. When growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls, a.k.a. Cataract City--a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place--one of Jake's closest confidantes was his uncle Calvin, a sweet but eccentric misfit enamored of occult artefacts and outlandish conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turned twelve, Calvin invited him to join the "Saturday Night Ghost Club"--a seemingly light-hearted project to investigate some of Cataract City's more macabre urban myths. Over the course of that life-altering summer, Jake not only met his lifelong best friend and began to imagine his own future, he came to realize that his uncle's preoccupation with chilling legends sprang from something so painful, and buried so deep, that Calvin himself was unaware of the source. From the Scotiabank Giller Prize-nominated author of Cataract City and bestselling memoir Precious Cargo, here is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the fragility of mind and body, the resilience of the human spirit--and the haunting mutability of memory.

A Novel

Kat Albanese

My mom says Dove lives like a sun does. In this never-ending state of heat and light that would burn the rest of us up.

That magic gets kicked out of you, churched out, shamed out—or worse, you steal it from yourself. It gets embarrassed out of you by the kids who run the same stretch of streets and grown-ups who say it’s time to put away childish things. By degrees, you kill your own magic.

As far as I was concerned, there was nothing wrong with being an odd duck. I figured some people have edges that don’t allow them to slot neatly into the holes society expects them to fit into, that was all.

Ours was a small, contained universe and I was happy within it.

You always fall hardest the first time, don't you? There's no bottom to it.

Years later, I assisted on an operation where a surgeon many times my superior unblocked a neural pathway to give a four-year-old girl sight. I was there when she opened her eyes. The moment she saw her parents and brother — who before then had been merely voices-she broke into an astounded cascade of giggles. That was the closest I can come to my own sense of seeing Dove that first time: something unlocked inside me and these fresh possibilities flooded in, opening my whole world up.

I was scared—with that crystalline, childish fear ofbeing caught and punished. That fear thrashed behind my rib cage like a bird in cupped hands, perhaps the last truly childlike instance of that emotion I'd ever feel. That fear is a kind of magic. As you get older, the texture of your fear changes…

…Looking back, I wish I'd relished those final instants of childish fear: that saccharine-sweet taste of terror curdling like sour milk in my mouth.

But make no mistake, the girl contains fire to evaporate oceans, light to blind minor gods. If I could freeze her in the heartbeat where she skipped across the footbridge, carve her out of time and fix her in the firmament...in the deepest chambers of my heart, I know that nobody, not another soul on earth, will ever be as purely astonishing as Dove Yellowbird was in that moment.

Imagine trying to hold the tail of a comet as it blazes across the heavens. It's burning your hands, eating you up, but there's no malice in it; a comet can't possibly know or care about you.

"Give you a tip, Jake." Her fingers hadn't left my neck. My pulse quickened under her touch. "Anyone else asks, tell them you knocked the little bastard out. Because if nobody can prove it didn't happen, hell, it may as well be true. Never wake the dreamers from their dream."

"Some other men came in. They filed into the kitchen one after the other, their bodies unkinking from the cold Can you imagine it? You open your front door and invite death inside."

Living in Cataract City shrank Dove, because it asked her to be so much less. Hanging out with me must have swelled her back to her rightful size, which I guess was why every few weeks she'd stop by for a top-up.

I heard things. Screams in a dense sonic mist, wind sawing across rusted metal, something bubbling, rainfall like ten-penny nails. I would have slammed the lid of the Psycho-Phone, crumpling the horn between the lips of the case, but I couldn't move, was paralyzed, the sounds ebbing into whale-songs as something else built behind them —a sinister presence running behind those melancholy arias. Soon all I could hear was horrid stifled breathing, breaths built out of whispers, realizing too late that the cadence of those breaths matched the rapid beat of my own heart.

Tiff Brunson

People think neurosurgeons cut into brains with a scalpel. Another myth. How can you carve toothpaste? An infant's brain matter is even less substantial than an adult's, like pancake batter. I operate with a sucker wand, a tool that is exactly as it sounds. As I investigate the runnels of a patient's brain it grips me that something unforgivingly solid-my wand-is moving through something ephemeral, dreamlike: a patient's memories. Though I work carefully and with a keen knowledge of the cerebral topography, my wand remains a beast blundering through fields of budding shoots. If I trample something critical, the patient may awaken lacking a vital memory. That one where they gazed into the sky as a child wondering how a star might taste, settling on breathtaking wintergreen. The smell of their newborn daughter's scalp, or that haunting tingle on their lips following their first kiss.

Caitlin

I figured some people have edges that don't allow them to slot neatly into the holes society expects them to fit into, that was all.

Melanie Harvie

Looking back, I am struck by how precious little it takes to convince an unwilling outsider and the new kid in town to agree to any plan, even one that involved following a gangly middle-aged man into haunted territories.

…monsters make themselves scarce when adults are around, only to slither back after dark. Every kid knew this to be an unshakable fact.

Sometimes stories are the best we can hope for. They help us to simply get by, while deeper levels of our consciousness slap bandages on wounds that hold the power to wreck us. So we tell ourselves that the people we love closed their eyes and slipped painlessly away from us. That our personal failures are the product of external forces rather than unfixable weaknesses.

Essence

I really liked this one. It has that nostalgic, coming of age feel that reminded me a lot of Stand by Me! Kids exploring their town, chasing mysteries and slowly realizing the world is bigger and heavier than they thought. 

What really stood out to me was the relationship between Jake and his uncle Calvin. There’s something so genuine and tender about their bond. Calvin’s weirdness, his curiosity and the way he opens Jake’s eyes to things beyond what most adults talk about. Their moments together are what give the book its heart.

The writing is beautiful and bittersweet. I loved the overall theme of how stories, memories and even “ghosts” shape who we become. How they can haunt us in their own way. It’s reflective without feeling too heavy.

It’s one of those books that sneaks up on you. You think it’s just about ghost stories but it ends up leaving a mark on you. 

I finished it feeling a little sad, a little nostalgic and really glad I picked it up! 

I really liked this one. It has that nostalgic, coming of age feel that reminded me a lot of Stand by Me! Kids exploring their town, chasing mysteries and slowly realizing the world is bigger and heavier than they thought. 

What really stood out to me was the relationship between Jake and his uncle Calvin. There’s something so genuine and tender about their bond. Calvin’s weirdness, his curiosity and the way he opens Jake’s eyes to things beyond what most adults talk about. Their moments together are what give the book its heart.

The writing is beautiful and bittersweet. I loved the overall theme of how stories, memories and even “ghosts” shape who we become. How they can haunt us in their own way. It’s reflective without feeling too heavy.

It’s one of those books that sneaks up on you. You think it’s just about ghost stories but it ends up leaving a mark on you. 

I finished it feeling a little sad, a little nostalgic and really glad I picked it up! 

The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is because at the beginning I almost DNF’ed it but I decided to stick around and it was an amazing read. Very well written, didn’t see the twist coming until it was already there. Good Halloween read! 

Leah Diaz 

Alicia Evans

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE: An infectious and heartbreaking novel from "one of this country's great kinetic writers" (Globe and Mail)--Craig Davidson's first new literary fiction since his bestselling, Giller-shortlisted Cataract City When neurosurgeon Jake Baker operates, he knows he's handling more than a patient's delicate brain tissue--he's altering their seat of consciousness, their golden vault of memory. And memory, Jake knows well, can be a tricky thing. When growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls, a.k.a. Cataract City--a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place--one of Jake's closest confidantes was his uncle Calvin, a sweet but eccentric misfit enamored of occult artefacts and outlandish conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turned twelve, Calvin invited him to join the "Saturday Night Ghost Club"--a seemingly light-hearted project to investigate some of Cataract City's more macabre urban myths. Over the course of that life-altering summer, Jake not only fell in love and began to imagine his future, he slowly, painfully came to realize that his uncle's preoccupation with chilling legends sprang from something buried so deep in his past that Calvin himself was unaware of it. By turns heartwarming and devastating, written with the skill and cinematic immediacy that has made Craig Davidson a star, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a bravura performance from one of our most remarkable literary talents: a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the fragility and resilience of mind, body and human spirit, as well as the haunting mutability of memory and story.

Gelaine Trinidad

3.5/5 

This was such a fun and solid read. Set in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jake and his two friends join his uncle for Saturday night ghost club. They visit isolated spots around town where mysterious and haunting events may have taken place according to Jake's uncle; Uncle C—a man with a deep interest in the occult with his own speciality shop at the top of Clifton Hill. Niagara Falls in the 80s is a perfect setting for this place with its abandoned lots, hidden escarpments, and the idle neighborhood in the fringes of the city's saturated tourist spot. This book is written in Jake's perspective as a much older and successful individual working as a neurosurgeon. From the start, we get a clear understanding of Jake's fascination with the brain and memory. Ever since he was young, Jake always felt connected with his uncle who shared the same childish wonder and imagination he had. Moreover, these supernatural escapades started the subtle unravelling of a tragic family secret. 

Additionally, this book is also a coming of age story. Jake finds himself falling in love, finding a true friend, and standing up for himself. He also begins to experience the harsh truth of reality in which a child's wild imagination starts to fade away and gets replaced. "By degrees, you kill your own magic. Before long your fears become adult ones: crushing debts and responsibilities, sick parents and sick kids, the possibility of dying unremembered and unloved. Fears of not being the person you were so certain you’d grow up to be."

By the end of this book, the reader learns the family mystery and Jake, with his love for neuroscience, attempts to write about this from the intersectional lens of memory and trauma. "The brain is the seat of memory, and memory is a tricky thing. At base level, memories are stories—and sometimes these stories we tell allow us to carry on. Sometimes stories are the best we can hope for. They help us to simply get by, while deeper levels of our consciousness slap bandages on wounds that hold the power to wreck us."  This book concludes on a bittersweet note and sets a reminder for us readers to appreciate our loved ones despite the grief and suffering that binds us.

Ryan Mateyk

Did not expect to be feeling the feelings I’m feeling when I picked up a book about 12 year old boys ghost hunting.

A short, irresistible, and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls - a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place - Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.

Sarah Sammis

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson started as a medical thesis and morphed into a novel about a boy taken on a series of ghost hunts with his uncle. What remains of the original thesis are introductory stories in each chapter about brain surgery patients.

It's the 1980s in Niagara Falls. Jake Baker is spending most of his free time with his Uncle Calvin. Calvin runs an occult shop and has tale after tale about the ghosts who haunt the city and its surrounds. He wants to show Jake this other side of the city.

3399FF - couple/family wildlands cornfield

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comm...

Precious. Heartwarming, unexpectedly heartbreaking. Nostalgic, spooky, a real summer gang of misfits story, a story of friendship and belonging. Really made me miss all the night biking adventures I used to go on with friends.

Truthfully, reading this after reading such a similar initial premise by Ray Bradbury (two young boys in a small town, coming of age, spooky rumors to investigate..) was a bit of an adjustment and made it tough not to compare the two, which is completely irrelevant and unfair.

The main point of comparison being that Ghost Club felt like a slower start, not getting to much until after the halfway point. And I’m actually all for a slow start—taking time with the world and character building, setting the stage, letting us sink into the environment. I prefer it. So I’m grateful he let us do that, I enjoyed putzing around town on bicycles with the boys, picking out sacks of candy for $1.50 and wandering through the aisle of the Occultorium listening to all of Uncle C’s wild stories.

I think the unfair comparison is that when Bradbury did this it was in a lush whirlwind of language and imagery that was very specific and unique to Bradbury, and also not everyone’s preference. Bradbury uses a verbose method, a different kind of sponge crammed with descriptors, to absorb and engage the reader, and Davidson’s writing was just less crammed and by comparison a little more straightforward. 

So the pacing and writing style in that way took some adjusting, but I truly enjoyed it.

The time hopping into the present day neurosurgeon excerpts was really interesting and nice that it ended up tying into the plot in an unexpected way.

Reading it was a delight, and once in the second half, I couldn’t put it down.

I can’t get my heart out of my throat after everything came together in the end 🤧🖤 Saturday Night Ghost Club forever 🤧🤧

Precious. Heartwarming, unexpectedly heartbreaking. Nostalgic, spooky, a real summer gang of misfits story, a story of friendship and belonging. Really made me miss all the night biking adventures I used to go on with friends.

Truthfully, reading this after reading such a similar initial premise by Ray Bradbury (two young boys in a small town, coming of age, spooky rumors to investigate..) was a bit of an adjustment and made it tough not to compare the two, which is completely irrelevant and unfair.

The main point of comparison being that Ghost Club felt like a slower start, not getting to much until after the halfway point. And I’m actually all for a slow start—taking time with the world and character building, setting the stage, letting us sink into the environment. I prefer it. So I’m grateful he let us do that, I enjoyed putzing around town on bicycles with the boys, picking out sacks of candy for $1.50 and wandering through the aisle of the Occultorium listening to all of Uncle C’s wild stories.

I think the unfair comparison is that when Bradbury did this it was in a lush whirlwind of language and imagery that was very specific and unique to Bradbury, and also not everyone’s preference. Bradbury uses a verbose method, a different kind of sponge crammed with descriptors, to absorb and engage the reader, and Davidson’s writing was just less crammed and by comparison a little more straightforward. 

So the pacing and writing style in that way took some adjusting, but I truly enjoyed it.

The time hopping into the present day neurosurgeon excerpts was really interesting and nice that it ended up tying into the plot in an unexpected way.

Reading it was a delight, and once in the second half, I couldn’t put it down.

I can’t get my heart out of my throat after everything came together in the end 🤧🖤 Saturday Night Ghost Club forever 🤧🤧

Not my usual fare, but it was really entertaining and much darker than I had expected! 

Ashlyn

Arturo Hernández

A short tale of ghosts, memories and disasters. The story is not novel however the pacing of the story is adequate and the narrative interesting. I appreciated the plot twist that ties everything together in the end.

Morgan

I could not get into this book. Love the idea of it, but I was never interested in what was happening.

This is one of those books that sneaks up on you, a delightful surprise that can only be experienced when reading it for the first time. Beautifully written, yet also simple and straightforward. A magical read. I only knocked half a star off because I didn’t love the narrator. 

Sarah Erle

Alice Myles

Anika | The.Bookish.Traveler 🌸

-I really loved how Craig Davidson really made me feel like part of the club (Jake, Billy, and Dove were literally my best friends for the entire novel). I was always so excited to get home and continue reading about the next adventure!
-I loved the backstory of Uncle Calvin (don’t worry I won’t spoil it for you) and the empathy that Davidson makes you feel for him.
-CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and the beautiful creation of friendships. Yay for friendships!
-It has just the right amount of spooky mixed with very light romance (actually it’s more like that 12 year old awkward first love kind of romance) and laugh out loud bits!

Sarahi Flores

So this Saturday Night Ghost club consisted of going to some late night adventures with the protagonist's uncle, and some friends. They go basically go out of curiosity. I mean who wouldn't? It's pretty interesting that the uncle is doing all of this and for what reason you may ask? well, it's a doozy. Everything will unravel in due time and that's how it grabbed my attention. 
This book is set in the 80's and I really enjoy that vibe. All before technology took over and such. It's a pretty good imagery to have in mind when reading in that setting. Jake seems to be like an ordinary 12 year old boy but with a some quite unique lifestyle due to his uncle's upbringings. I wouldn't mind having an eccentric uncle. Makes things quite fun and not boring at that age. 
This book takes place from present to past and there's a reason for that. Jake just can't help himself reflecting about the Saturday Night Ghost Club when he's already grown up and a doctor. It's a great coming of age story that you will want to dive into. I give this book 4 out 5 stars. Would I recommend it? of course! It gives me The Stranger Things Vibe.

aoife

this is such a rare book and i already want to reread it

Esra

Shouldve been marketed differently, I thought it was gonna be some Stranger Things horror. Anyway the last 15 pages were interesting but wtf tho.

Sophia De La Garza

This book was different from what I thought it would be. 

It wasn't as horror-filled as I had wanted it to be, though I did love Uncle C's oddities shop. However, I still think this a nice coming of age story, and good beginning book for those wanting to get into more horror/spooky reads. 

Overall, 3 stars.

Fiona Coffey

Such a great book, it’s intriguing, and exciting and sad and beautifully written.

Shawna Gavas

Not what I was expecting at all, but I loved the way the author brought the story all together at the end!

Anastaciya

Okay, sure, read this if you want to get your heart broken...
Took me a bit to get into it, but it's a fast read and a beautiful, sad, bittersweet, nostalgic story

Witch

Sweet coming-of-age story. Not groundbreaking or new, but still an enjoyable and quick read.

An irresistible and bittersweet coming-of-age story in the vein of Stranger Things and Stand by Me about a group of misfit kids who spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends "A celebration of the secret lives of children, both their wonders and their horrors . . . Immensely enjoyable, piercingly clever, and satisfyingly soulful." -Jason Heller, NPR Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls - a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place - Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.

Essence &
The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

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Essence &The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

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Essence &
The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson