The Apparition Phase

By: Will Maclean

Narrated by: Theo Solomon

Brought to you by Penguin.

Tim and Abi have always been different from their peers. Precociously bright, they spend their evenings in their parents' attic discussing the macabre and unexplained, zealously re-reading books on folklore, hauntings and the supernatural. In particular, they are obsessed with photographs of ghostly apparitions and the mix of terror and delight they provoke in their otherwise boring and safe childhoods.

But when Tim and Abi decide to fake a photo of a ghost to frighten an unpopular school friend, they set in motion a deadly and terrifying chain of events that neither of them could have predicted and they are forced to confront the possibility that what began as a callous prank might well have taken on a malevolent life of its own.

An unsettling literary ghost story set between a claustrophobic British suburban town and a menacing Suffolk manor, The Apparition Phase is an unnerving novel, which, like all the best ghost stories, pushes us repeatedly over the line between rational explanation and inexplicable fear. It asks us to consider what might be lurking in the shadows and questions what is real and what is simply a trick of the mind - and whether there's really a difference between the two.

©2020 Will Maclean (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A delight for both the expert and the uninitiated, this creepy tale is a carapace of cosy nostalgia wrapped round a solid thread of dread.... A page turner that keeps you in dreaded suspense of what you are about to be shown.... A claustrophobic and entertaining read that left me breathless.... Horror for the connoisseur." (Alice Lowe)

Outstanding!!! Loved it!!! (some trigger warnings)

It is rare to find a book that just attaches a vacuum to my brain and refuses to let me go until it's done. I LOVE books that can do that, and always feel lost when they are over. This is one of those rare books. I can't completely explain why I loved it so much, except to say that the writing is superlative and it is the type of supernatural story that I adore and that are so hard to find. I can not WAIT for Maclean to put out another one, which will be happening this October! (2026).
Triggers; I did knock off a star from the story rating for the pointless murder of the birds. So stupid, and so pointless, didn't add anything to the story. I loath it when authors use animal abuse to indicate the presence of evil. Normally, I would stop reading and write a scathing review, but this book was so good I just kept going. It's brief, so skip the scenes in the abandoned factory if you are bothered by this sort of thing as I am. Other triggers include isolation, abduction, murder, possible torture (implied), bullying, and manipulation.
The closest I can get to describing why I loved this book so much is to say that one of my favorite types of stories, and the type that is SO HARD TO FIND these days, is a ghost story that is rich in atmosphere. This story is STRONG in the atmosphere game. It's about grief, and loss, and isolation, and mystery. It aces all of these points. If you are in it for gore, descriptions of torture, splatter, or savagery, this is not the book for you. This book is for people who love the mystery and creep of a shadow at the end of the hall, the missing part of yourself when someone you love disappears that seems to be just around the corner if you could only catch it again, growing up without support, the damage that life inflicts on parents and children, and the realization of the horror that is such a large part of the world. There's also a supernatural element that remains hidden but present and that finishes the story in a way that some might find disappointing but that seemed to me to fit with the despair that the rest of the story illustrates so well. It's a mysterious ending, but also a very clear one. I'd like to have this book as an actual book, so I could flip back and forth putting clues together. It's not cheery, and yet it made me feel good, because it is such an unexpected surprise to find a book so well written and so atmospheric.
The reader gets a fair few points wrong, in that he reads a line one way and then the text clearly indicates it should have been another (as in, he reads a character as angry, and then the text tells us they were joking). He's also not great at opposite sex characters. Despite these things, which usually drive me up the wall, I liked him. He has a beautiful voice and he read the protagonist really really well. I did turn his speed up, though.

Nods to Shirley Jackson and MR James!

Yes, it took awhile to get used to the narration, but if it’s too slow for you just speed it up - kind of a no brainer.

I loved the story and it really spooked me in parts. It is definitely atmospheric and slow building, so if you don’t like that sort of thing you may want to pass.

I adored the nods to Shirley Jackson and M.R. James and the setting of the English countryside in the 70s really made me think of the fantastic British supernatural tales of that era. In one part, the characters were watching one of the Christmas Specials on the Beeb!

It was recommended by someone in my Facebook M.R.James group and I’m really glad I listened.

Deeply melancholy 'ghost' story

I loved this book -- my only complaint is that I felt it ended too abruptly or quickly -- I DEFINITELY would have liked to have spent more time in the world Maclean created and certainly more time in the aftermath of the events of the 1970s, without spoiling too much. A definite must-listen for literary ghost horror fans. Honestly he could have doubled the length of the book and I'd have been happy

Great story

Really captivating story. The narrator’s voices for a couple of the characters were a little whiny/nasally but otherwise enjoyable.

A truly frightening story that blends bittersweet adolescent longing with sheer terror.

I loved the consummately British slow, creeping pace of growing dread. The novel is a poignant portrayal of untimely grief, a rare narrative that honors the depth of the teenaged consciousness, and a truly frightening read.