The Time of the Ghost

By Diana Wynne Jones

Can a ghost from the future save a life in the past? A chilling tale of dark forces and revenge…

The ghost turns up one summer day, alone in a world she once knew, among people who were once her family. She knows she is one of four sisters, but which one? She can be sure of only one thing – that there's been an accident.
As she struggles to find her identity, she becomes aware of a malevolent force stirring around her. Something terrible is about to happen. One of the sisters will die – unless the ghost can use the future to reshape the past. But how can she warn them, when they don't even know she exists?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Dec 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780007383528

Diana Wynne Jones

DIANA WYNNE JONES was born in August 1934 in London, where she had a chaotic and unsettled childhood against the background of World War II. The family moved around a lot, finally settling in rural Essex. As children, Diana and her two sisters were deprived of a good, steady supply of books by a father, ‘who could beat Scrooge in a meanness contest’. So, armed with a vivid imagination and an insatiable quest for good books to read, she decided that she would have to write them herself.

Reviews for The Time of the Ghost

[chrisriesbeck · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A challenging read for the target audience I would think. The point of view character is a ghost, but with no memory of why she's a ghost. She's not even sure who she's the ghost of. There are four sisters, living an odd life with neglectful parents. Father is a headmaster prone to rage who can't remember which daughter is which. First, Sally (possibly) has to find out who she is, then why she's a ghost. It becomes clear she hasn't died yet -- the cover makes clear she's a ghost from the future -- but she still doesn't know why. Eventually dark secrets are revealed. The story for me is hurt by how mean the characters are to each other. This is deliberate and part of the story, but it means that this remains more a puzzle tale than one with emotional heft.Not my favorite Jones but one of the more interestingly constructed books. Recommended.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Possibly my favorite DWJ book. The story is creepy, funny, and complex. The characters are memorable and distinctive. A bit on the darker side as far as mentions of more serious issues like abuse, but it works well and I get something new out it with every reread since I first read it as a teenager.

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

YA, but a great read all the same. A forgotten goddess and four almost-forgotten sisters collide, and terrible trouble can only be averted by a little judicious time travel. I love the characters of the sisters, all of whom have such distinct and interesting personalities that I never confused them for a moment.

[perpetualrevision · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. Compelling main character.

[tigerbuns · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anyone who has read a couple of books by Diana Wynne Jones knows that anything can happen and the explanation in the end is almost never the one you expected it to be in the beginning. This is true for Time of the Ghost, too, and although it certainly is not Diana Wynne Jones' best book, it was nonetheless great fun to watch the story unfold and find out what's behind all the strange goings-on.

I agree that it is to a certain amount darker than her other books, a little more disturbing, too. I've always felt that she doesn't shy away from darker themes or ideas, and I've always liked that, actually. I think even (or especially!) if you write children's or YA books, it's a good thing to admit to at least the potential for cruelty and violence in humans. (That said, this book is neither cruel nor violent and I wouldn't have any doubts about giving it to my 10 year old nephew.)

Confusion-wise I felt it is roughly on a level with Hexwood (which I love dearly), and it has a similar twist in the middle that leaves you with a bunch of question marks floating over your head. But, as usual with DWJ, things get cleared up in the end (and rather quickly). At no point in the book it felt exasperating to me, it only added to the need to read on!

What fascinated me was the great characterization, as DWJ leaves enough room for interpretation, change and imperfections in the characters to make them thoroughly real in their strangeness (Fenella must be one of the coolest characters I've come across in a while). Due to the nature of the protagonist it was a bit difficult to follow through with the old relatin', but it didn't stop me from enjoying the book and offered a refreshing change of method to explore the story. The ending was a bit rushed, as Mrs Jones tends to wrap up things quickly, but personally I don't mind - it's as if she's saying "here's my explanation, now think about it yourself".

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's hard to know who's more evil in the story, the children's parents or Monigan. Apparently most of the things these parents do in this story are from Diana's real childhood, which is a bit scary in itself. Adding in a layer of the supernatural only adds to the horror. The ghost of the title wakes up one summer day alone in the world and unsure who she is, she's certain that there's been an accident and she's trying to work out how to prevent it and how to fix the future.It's an interesting story, very dark and has moments that genuinely made me worry for the characters. Found it an intersting read.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's quite strange reading this after reading the Reflections collection, knowing how autobiographical this happens to be. And how things that really happened to Diana Wynne Jones had to be toned down to be at all believable in the story. Of course, it still has that expansive, slightly breakneck pace of most of Jones' work -- there's something a little, well, mad about it. Colourful. I don't know how to describe it -- it's a swirl of colours and impressions. A child's imagination.

I read this all in one go; the biggest hook is the confused narrator, the way you can't quite get things straight. The plot itself -- I don't know, I wasn't so keen on the whole Monigan thing. (Intentional closeness to Morrigan?) I suppose that's my adult way of demanding explanations, though: as a child I'd probably just have accepted that an evil goddess clung to the land and somehow possessed a doll.

(The last bit of this review is a reaction to Diana Wynne Jones' thoughts on the differences between writing for children and writing for adults. Children, she found, make the connections much more readily and instinctively than adults. She had to do more explanation when she wrote for adults.)

[raschneid_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think this may actually be the strangest DWJ book I have read. The whole thing feels like a long weird dream. It took me several days and perhaps fifty pages to really get into the book, although I found it fairly satisfying by the end. I think many of the elements are executed more successfully in her later books.

On one hand it doesn't help that my copy's tagline gave away the second half of the book, but then again I might have been further discouraged without this spoiler helping me to believe that eventually the plot would make sense. :)

I did appreciate many of the small details, particularly the Monty Python shoutout.

[phoebesmum · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of DWJ’s darkest books; its portrait of parents so neglectful as to constitute actual abuse is more frightening than the malevolent spirit that manifests itself.A ghost finds herself in what she knows was her childhood home, amongst three of her sisters. She knows she’s one of the siblings, but has no idea which one. All she knows is that there’s been an accident, something terrible has happened, and, if she only knew how, she could stop it from happening. But there has to be a sacrifice …Not at all an easy or a comfortable read, but – fantasy elements aside – painfully true to life: the four sisters come across as real people. So, unfortunately, do their parents.

[math_foo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is certainly the darkest thing that Diana Wynne Jones has written. Having read her autobiography, this story is all the more disturbing.

[sogamonk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed the writer, did not care for the story.

[herenya_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Time of the Ghost was unexpected. I knew it was about a ghost who is one of four neglected sisters watching her sisters, trying to work out who she is and what exactly was the accident which precipitated her becoming a ghost – and it is that, so I am not sure exactly why it was unexpected, but it was.The sisters are believably rounded, original and flawed people. Jones really captures sibling relationships – that mixture of love, exasperation, tolerance and anger. These girls do not get along in perfect harmony, because have foibles and irritating quirks; they don’t always say the right things and are not always likeable. There is something unsettling about this – initially, the ghost is critical of her family, and there is the uncomfortable possibility of discovering that she has been disliked, or unlikeable, or wrong. But by the end, the story had convinced me that not only were these sisters likeable, they genuinely liked each other, and it made me wish that the story went on. The girls’ lives felt real and vividly so, from their circumstances and how they deal with being neglected or ignored by their parents, to their friendships with boys who attend the school their parents run, and their dreams and plans and occasionally crazy antics.As a mystery, it is compelling, and as a tale of adolescents who become caught up in something evil, it was seriously eerie. I think the evil supernatural aspect of the plot would have bothered me had I read it when I was much younger. Now, I do not know exactly what I think about it. I was disappointed when it ended – it wasn’t a bad ending; by Jones’ standards, it wasn’t even a particularly confusing ending, but I wanted more about these characters and their world. So it was a good sort of disappointment… which suggests it was a good sort of book.“If you’re ready to listen to me—I didn’t mean that,” Fenella said, and still very portentous, she turned in a swirl of crooked green sack and marched away.“Then what was it about?” Cart said to Imogen.Imogen spread her hands. “Fenella being Fenella.” She raised her hands to the ceiling. “Oh, why am I cursed with sisters?”“You’re not the only one!” snarled Cart.

[steph78_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. It is the story of a ghost who appears in a place she discovers is her home, knowing there has been an accident. As she tries to discover who she is and what has happened, the story of her family, and the disturbing goings on come to light. A great read, really creepy, both in the ghost story and the portrayal of a family where everything is not as lovely as the ghost initially believes.

[thioviolight · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a YA fantasy novel that I found quite gripping. I read practically the entire book in one sitting. I am fascinated by the story that Jones has concocted; this is not something I'd expect in a YA novel.