Miramont's Ghost - Elizabeth Hall

Miramont's Ghost - Elizabeth Hall
Source: Kindle First
Originally Reviewed: January 9, 2015
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

RIGGERS: rape, incest, pedophilia

Thankfully, I did not have to spend money on this book. I received it through the Kindle First program.

It took far more alcohol than I want to admit to get through that book.

The story had potential, true, but it had potential in the way that Jane Eyre had potential over 150 years ago – except Jane Eyre lived up to it’s potential.

Miramont’s Ghost, essentially, failed.

Let’s start with the most glaring issue. Yeah, it may be a spoiler, but I’d rather “spoil” this than have some unsuspecting reader stumble upon this with no advance warning: the rape. By her cousin. After remembering some kind of pre-molestation behavior from when she was a child.

Fine, I get it. Something had to send her over the edge. Then again, the way she was going, realizing what was being done to her, maybe not. Maybe the rape was as completely, utterly pointless as it seemed. Not even a claim of being historically “accurate” would fly by me right now. The girl’s life was completely and utterly dreary. We get it.

No, really, we do. Absolutely HORRIBLE.

There’s absolutely nothing noteworthy about this book, aside from some glaringly inaccurate statements about things that make me really question how much the author cared about being “accurate” aside from the “history.” Even in the end, all we’re treated to is some ridiculously long and pointless diatribe about how she’s trapped and the ones who perpetuated her misery are gone and escaped, and, wait, oh my god, a revelation! She can let go! She’s free! She’s no longer a ghost!

To Summarize:

Adrienne, our heroine, is clairvoyant (which also has absolutely nothing to do with the story except to possibly be the reason for all her misery). Her grandfather, governess and eventually a man named Gerard are the only people who really care about her. Her aunt is suspicious of her and wants her to stay quiet. Her mother is spineless and her father is an adulterous bastard.

Adrienne looses her grandfather, looses her governess thanks to said adulterous bastard, looses Gerard thanks to scheming bitch of an aunt. Then bitch aunt tells spineless mother that she’s taking Adrienne to the US to live with her and her son, the pedophile priest who can do no wrong in the eyes of his mother.

Bitch aunt tells rest of the family Adrienne drowned on the trip. She’s trapped. She’s brought to Miramont under the guise of bitch aunties maid, and is treated as such. She is given a room in servants quarters. She cleans, tends to the bitch aunt, all while hoping her love Gerard will come save her or plotting an escape.

Of course, her trying to watch pedophile priest/cousin gives him the wrong idea. After bitch aunt increases suffering of Adrienne intentionally, dear cousin takes it upon himself to act on delusions he’s created around his “whore cousin” constantly watching him.

Eventually Adrienne tries to kill herself and succeeds, after which bitch aunt returns to France and pedophile priest has to flee due to his pedophile’s ways leaking to the general public. But not after sealing Adrienne’s body away since the ground was too hard to dig. *snorts*

Then we reach the end, where we receive the aforementioned pointless diatribe to a ridiculously unsatisfying ending. In fact, the whole damn book was one of the least satisfying I’d ever read, and isn’t worth the energy to say anything more about it.