The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes

Whispers of the Story

Imagine you work very hard to make an image for yourself. You have a nice apartment, your dream job, the most fashionable clothes and you are an inspiration for people around the world in your domain. At one event organized by you, blood letters form the word “Traitor.” What do you do?

What Gwendolyn did was ignore the whole ordeal and try to find a reasonable explanation, although she knew that the world is far more interesting. How? Because before she was Gwendolyn, she was Giselda and she worked with ghosts.

Fonsi is a medium, connecting the world of the living with the world of the dead, dealing with a lot of drama, trying to get over a human boyfriend and being in a situationship with a ghost. On top of that, a breach is forming between limbo and the human world. Fonsi has to reconnect with his cousin, Gisela, and try to close the breach before the ghosts take over the world.

No pressure, right?

Review of The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes

Have you ever had a Zen moment in which nothing really matters, everything is lean, flows, and you have no care in the world, just thinking of things that might or might not have any connection to the next thought? A moment in which you are so chill you do not rush into anything, everything is so slow-paced?

Well, this is how it feels reading The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes. Just take all the information given and do not rush the process. Literally.

The first three chapters or so were interesting, setting the tone for something spectacular to happen. Gwendolyn running away from a fire, leaving her life behind. Fonsi showing how he talks to ghosts in limbo, transmitting their messages to the living. Writings in human blood appearing out of nowhere.

And after all this, we are in limbo ourselves, the action dragging for far too long.

Among all the backstories and explanations of the past, and some characters that have little relevance in the action, we find out in half a page that there is a breach and Fonsi needs to find his cousin, who is the only one who can stop it. What a shocker (not)!

When “Slow Burn” Becomes Just… Slow

Just to be clear, this book is 202 pages long. At page 86 we were still discovering the backstory of Gwendolyn and Fonsi, at page 88 Fonsi discovers that his cousin has another name. At page 101 they meet again after many years and she finds out what is happening.

Looking at the number of pages, there are more pages setting the scene than actually for the breach to be repaired. It all ends with forgiveness, love, family, and a surprise.

Don’t get me wrong, the author tried to build suspense in the first part, but it was poorly done and it was more frustrating for me.

Gwendolyn’s event is sabotaged, then we get a glimpse into Fonsi’s drama. Another one of Gwendolyn’s events is sabotaged, then we get a glimpse into Fonsi’s drama. Gwendolyn’s office is under attack, and we continue to hear about Fonsi’s drama.

At some point, I just wanted to get it over with and find out what is happening.

The “Save the World” Plan (Apparently Optional Teamwork)

Now let’s get into the action. Despite the fact that there is an entire association of Guardians, Fonsi and Gwendolyn are alone in trying to repair the breach. There is an excuse that the woman who raised Fonsi after his mother died is away trying to find another Manipulator, but why Fonsi did not inform her the moment he located his cousin, I do not know.

Closing the breach means faith, prayers and not asking many questions. Gwendolyn gets sucked into limbo, finds out the reason why this is happening and why she is targeted, and gets stuck there because she is not powerful enough. She is rescued by Fonsi and two other men who just send positive energy to Fonsi.

Back in the world of the living, the ghosts are creating havoc. Gwendolyn, Fonsi, and the others witness an episode of possession, with the sole purpose of adding another action scene and bringing another character into play which has no relevance later.

They try again, Gwendolyn finds new strength and gets help from a goddess, and this time she is much more powerful than imagined. She flies, somehow expands, can sense every ghost that has come through the breach, hundreds I imagine, and gets them to the other side.

Except for Fonsi’s ghost boyfriend.

Oh, and she takes the soul of her aunt’s boyfriend and gives his power to the crushed soul of her boyfriend and brings him back to life.

The breach is closed, people are saved, and the world has another possible threat to deal with: ghosts.

Fonsi and Gwendolyn go back to their lives. She decides to stop running from what she is, in literally a phrase, after years of running away, and he decides to shave.

Decisions That Raise More Questions Than the Plot

I guess by now you have figured out my opinion about this novel. In short, I find it tasteless, some events put together on paper and twisted to make sense at some point.

There are so many moments in which I was like “Why?”. Let’s go through them.

Gwendolyn is the sole survivor of a catastrophic event and she ended up in an orphanage. This catastrophic event and her memories of it is mentioned several times, so I imagined it would have some relevance to the story, such as maybe that’s when Gwendolyn discovered her powers, maybe she was responsible for that event as well, but no, nothing.

12 years later, Ignacia,her aunt, sees a photo of children in an orphanage, and though she never saw Gwendolyn ever, at 12 years old she looks exactly like her adult mother. How? And why didn’t she try to find Gwendolyn sooner? We never find out. She brings Gwendolyn home and she lives with Ignacia and her son Fonsi. As a teenager Gwendolyn develops powers just like her aunt, but Fonsi, not yet. 

Years later, her aunt makes her use her powers to convince people to give them money. Then something happens, I don’t know exactly what, but because of Gwendolyn’s powers there is a fire and her aunt dies. Gwendolyn runs away even though she was not responsible for the event. She admits that if other Guardians find out what her aunt made her do, they would be sympathetic with her. But not only does she run, but she changes her name as fast as she can, never looks back, and just locks that part of her life away. Drama queen much?

And yes, she abandons her cousin all alone in the world. She doesn’t care about him. But later admits she was wrong. She had literally years to try and find him to see if he is alright, but she realized she abandoned him only when he appeared at her door.

Also, her love life is a mess, she wants James, but doesn’t. At the beginning of the book she admits she is afraid to get close to anyone because she might hurt them, but in the second half of the book she is afraid she will not be able to close the breach because she has not used her powers since she was a teenager, and she might even not have powers anymore.

It’s just me, or that doesn’t make much sense?

Fonsi: Emotional Damage, No Progress

Now let’s get to Fonsi.

Fonsi is a lonely guy who finds some kind of pleasure in the touch of a gay ghost. He has been in love with a man, Raphael, who likes more to have fun and have orgies. Fonsi knew this, he was invited to these kinds of parties, but somehow, he still believed Raphael would wake up one day and realize Fonsi is enough in his life.

In the end, Fonsi did not want to sleep around, so he got out of this situation. Apparently, he doesn’t suffer after him, but kind of does because he does not take care of himself, looks like a homeless man, and has booty calls with a ghost.

Raphael makes an appearance and tries to convince Fonsi to get back together, but then he gets sucked into all the action. Apparently finding out Fonsi can talk with ghosts is too much for him and he leaves immediately.

I think Raphael’s purpose is just to show how some men are, because he has no impact on the action and has no impact on Fonsi’s development since they broke up. He just… sits there.

Villains, Motivation, and Two Sentences That Fix Everything

Why was it all possible? Ignacia, Fonsi’s mother, fell in love with a thug, Duarte. He dies because of his way of life. Ignacia suffers but does not even try to contact his ghost, even though she has that ability, being one of the Guardians.

Again, I am not really sure what caused the accident that killed her, but apparently they were reunited in limbo. And in limbo he convinces her to stand against everything that the Guardians stand for and harness the powers of other ghosts to open a breach.All that takes years, but her trust in him is shattered in minutes when Gwendolyn tells her he only uses her. That’s it, years of manipulation are shattered by two phrases.

And they start to fight, Ignacia attacks Duarte, but when Gwendolyn takes him and pushes his strength into James, Ignacia is clueless. She still looks for Duarte in limbo. For real? She is one of the Guardians, she was fighting with him, but didn’t notice when her niece took him away?

Side Characters That Exist… Just Because

Speaking of people with zero relevance, Tariq and his mother only exist to show that maybe they tried something else, but ultimately Fonsi has no choice but to find his cousin.

Even when he is in trouble, he doesn’t call her for help until much later. And when he does, she tells him to relax because nobody knows their book of Guardians better than him and he’s got this. Completely pointless.

Jessica, Gwendolyn’s boss, exists only to tell us how extraordinary Gwendolyn is. There is also a moment when the gap between the worlds is getting larger, when she says she hears her mother’s voice. But that also proves to be irrelevant, because nothing happens with this information, just a hint that something is definitely wrong since a normal person without powers can hear the dead.

Bo, the driver, seems to have some fascination with Gwendolyn, giving up clients to get to her, but besides a moment in which he shows his muscles, he is pointless. We never find out if he actually has a crush on her.

The Ending: Questions Left Unanswered (On Purpose?)

Now the surprise. The very last chapter is from a man’s perspective, who turns out to be the one who guided Duarte’s ghost to be more powerful and convince his lover to create a breach. Why? We don’t know.

Apparently, he has something against Gwendolyn. Why? We don’t know.

Oh, and the boyfriend ghost? Apparently, he is full of scars because that’s how he chooses to show himself. In the end, he shows himself like a beautiful man, because he has healed some trauma. What’s his story? We don’t know.

Characters: Full Description, Little Substance

The characters? Well, they are just as tasteless.

Gwendolyn is perfect, has built a perfect life, she did bad things because she had to, she had a horrible childhood, but she is a good person at heart and does not want to hurt anyone. At the same time, she does not stand up to anyone either.

Fonsi is a sweet guy, gentle, with a very good moral compass, but he is passive. He cannot stand up to Raphael, he just leaves, he cannot speak his mind to Tariq and his mother, and the moment he sees Gwendolyn he waits for her to say what happened with his mother, even though he is confused and hurt.

As for other characters, we get some information about them, such as Tariq’s parents, but the information proves to be quite irrelevant. For example, we read about Tariq’s father, the way he was in the past, the kind of man he is, just for him to be relevant when he sits at a table and lets his wife do the talking with Tariq and Fonsi.

There are other things I could say about how some characters have no depth, little relevance, but their description is misleading and I thought that the level of detail would sum up to something great.

Final Thoughts

It started great, it became boring, to be succinct. If you are looking for something not challenging, with no hidden mysteries, something light you do not need to remember all the details and you do not have to think too much, then this is a good book for you.

If, like me, you want hidden gems, deep characters who grow, and at least one “AHA” moment, choose something else.

Happy reading!