Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta [Book Review]

Tom Perrotta’s Ghost Town is a quiet, haunted little coming-of-age story set in 1970s New Jersey — here’s why I gave it 4/5 stars. Read my review.

Tom Perrotta has built a career making the suburbs feel quietly cursed, and Ghost Town is no exception. It’s a 1970s New Jersey coming-of-age story — grief, bad choices, a burnout with a fast car, and a girl with an Ouija board — which, honestly, tracks. Jimmy Perrini is just a kid trying to get through high school in the shadow of something terrible.

What is the book about?

Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey, a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy finds himself lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family, drifting instead into troubling friendships with two older one a notorious local burnout with a fast car, an endless supply of weed, and a shaky grasp of reality; the other a smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board, which may just offer the only salve to their grief.

My thoughts:

Nothing says coming-of-age quite like grief, weed, suburbia, and an Ouija board.

Ghost Town follows Jimmy Perrini, a kid growing up in 1970s suburban New Jersey, just a few miles from Manhattan. After a tragedy at the end of eighth grade, Jimmy drifts into grief and makes poor decisions.

Other characters include a local burnout with a fast car, too much weed, and a flexible relationship with reality, and a smart, odd girl with an Ouija board.

I loved this one. Perrotta has a style I just really connect with. He’s sharp without being showy, funny without waving jazz hands at the reader, and very good at making suburban life feel both ordinary and deeply cursed. The ghost-story atmosphere is subtle but effective. This isn’t jump-scare territory. It’s more like grief in a wood-paneled basement.

I do wish some of the bigger social themes had been pushed a little further. They’re there, but they don’t always feel fully developed. Still, the emotional center is strong, and Perrotta makes nostalgia feel haunted rather than precious.

The book is quiet, so no, it won’t be for everyone. If you need constant fireworks, this may feel too slow. But the pace fits the story.

A quiet, strange, sad little suburban ghost story. It’s about memory, loss, and growing up. I’m into it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an advanced reader’s copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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