The 'Geisters

Author: David Nickle
Published: June 15, 2013
POV: Ann LeSage, 3rd person limited

So.  I read an interview with the author on John Scalzi's "Whatever" blog and the concept tickled me so much that I went out and bought the book (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/06/26/the-big-idea-david-nickle). 

From the blurb:  When Ann LeSage was a little girl, she had an invisible friend, a poltergeist, that spoke to her with flying knives and howling winds.  She called it the Insect, and with professional help, she contained it...As Ann grew from girl to woman, the Insect grew with her... Now Ann believes that she has the Insect under control.  But there are others vying to take that control away from her.  They may not know exactly what they're dealing with, but they know they want it.  They are the 'Geisters. 

The 'Geisters are a group of men that marry women with poltergeists so they can have sex with the ghosts.  They keep the women under their control (sometimes locked away) so they can easily access the ghost.  Ann falls in love with, and marries, one of their group, not realizing that is why he is interested in her. 

Very interesting concept, right?  And sadly, all too relevant (the author said he was proofing the galley when the news broke about the man in Cleveland, Ohio, who had kidnapped three women and kept them as sexual slaves for 10 years). 

Now, I love a good ghost story, and I was interested to see what Nickle would do with such a setup. 

I have to say, I just didn't get it.  Ann would move between her present story (courtship and marriage to Michael Voors) and her past (childhood and the rise of the Insect).  The back story was well-handled and spaced throughout the book.  There was a nice sense of creeping dread - we know Michael and his friend Ian Rickhardt are not quite what they seem - we just don't know when or how we'll find out what they are.  We can tell (even if Ann can't) that something is not quite right. 

The thing I didn't get - and what threw me out of the book - was how the men had sex with the poltergeists.  I did not understand that at all.  The Insect manages to convey to Ann that Michael is raping her in the bathroom of the plane on which they're flying back from their honeymoon.  The plane crashes, and Michael ends up dying - so it would appear that the Insect really was not a willing participant.  But then you would think that the Insect (or any of the ghosts) had to be willing to make intercourse happen.  The men do get off on terror - but also are obviously engaged in the act with something invisible.  Maybe I skimmed past it, but I never did get an explanation of why or how the men had control over the poltergeists - at least not one that I believed or understood. 

There is a scene, late in the book, where they are trying to inaugurate Ann's brother Philip into their cult, as he also has a link to the Insect.  This inauguration seems like a religious service, and there is an implication that they are worshiping the Insect.  In a plot twist that you can see coming a mile away, Ann's childhood shrink is exposed as one of their members.  He has worked very hard to make sure that Ann sees the Insect as Other, not as a component of herself, and this split is what makes the exploitation possible.  I tremendously enjoyed the moment Ann realized that this split existed and moved to accept the Insect - and to wreak havoc on those who would use them. 

I'm still trying to figure out what I think of The 'Geisters.  I thought the concept was great, and really enjoyed the way the author wrote (I thought he was very skilled with showing the interior work Ann did to keep the Insect contained).  This was a quick read, and I had to keep reading to find out what happened next.

All that being said, I never quite got into the book.  Ann remained a bit distant, and she was a character I feel I could have quite liked - an architect who used to play D&D.  For all that we were in Ann's head, we never were really made to feel for her.  I think things were rushed - we were always jumping from one scene/event to the next, without time to really absorb (which is probably why I feel I missed learning how, exactly, the men consorted with the ghosts).  I wish Nickle had done another draft - I feel it would have been a much better book, and easily one of my favorites.   As it is, not so much.