These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card

Hello my lovely readers! I checked this out at the library a few days ago and was reading it up until I boarded a plane for a work conference. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
Stanford Solomon has a shocking, thirty-year-old secret. And it’s about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley, a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend.

And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.

These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the house boy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions.

MY THOUGHTS
There was A LOT going on in this book.

The writing was strong and the stories of the Paisley family were extremely interesting. I really enjoyed reading about Vera, Bernard, Estelle and all the other family members. 

HOWEVER.

It was too much.

There were first, second AND third person point of views throughout this book. There were way too many timelines and too many characters to the point that I kept having to flip to the family tree at the beginning of the book to know who I was reading about.

It's a shame because, as a stated before, each story was so interesting and I didn't want them to end. The execution of the book just strayed too far from the synopsis. The revelation of who Stanford was to Irene didn't even happen in the book....it was added as a sidebar to continue talking about these various family members, which was disappointing.

Again, great writing, but I think this novel could've done with better editing to make it more cohesive. Also, the last chapter of the book...WHAT WAS THAT? I was genuinely left scratching my head. What a shame.