Ghost

Author Finbar Hawkins
Narrator Gemma Whelan
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Publish Date 6 November 2025
Run Time 4 hours and 41 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction and true stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Fantasy, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Mythic fantasy / Myths and Legends fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Thrillers.

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What to expect

Reviewed in The Observer, Telegraph, Financial Times and Irish Times; 'compelling', 'lyrical', 'superbly chilling', 'elegantly plotted', 'a tale of injustice, magic and redemption.'

What calls across the centuries to three girls drawn together to lay to rest an ancient evil in the woods?

60 AD
A blackbird calls a warning. Aine, a slave girl running away from her Roman masters, pauses to listen as she lifts a totemic, druid carving she's found in the tunnel where she's hiding. The last thing she sees is a tangle of matted fur, a sheaf of claws, a flash of fangs, as she unleashes a hungry animal presence.

1783 AD
Centuries later, white witch Sarah Gibson wanders the woods in search of refuge. She's at ease here with the changing seasons, the plants and animals, until one moonlit night, she senses Aine's terror. The blackbird calls a warning, but Sarah wants to help Aine's restless spirit.

Present day
Marie has dropped out of art college and is staying with her aunt for a while. But the woods nearby are hiding something. Marie can feel it. She hears the local gossip about tragic happenings there. Hopelessly caught by the ghostly voices of the past that echo uneasily in her present, Marie must pit her wits against powerful old magic.

Critics Review

'Ghost hovers deftly between fantasy and the everyday... a cracking, if slightly terrifying, read'

Telegraph

'An elegantly plotted, superbly chilling tale of the supernatural; perfect fireside reading for dark winter nights'

Observer

'A tale of injustice, magic and redemption'

Financial Times, Best Books of 2025

'This lyrical novel invites us into a world where ghost tales are real... a compelling read'

Irish Times

'As enticing as a flickering candle burning in the dark, Ghost is deft, original and terrifying. A book to raise the pulse and haunt the imagination – spectacularly good!'

Jonathan Stroud

‘Unsettling, deeply beautiful, and rich in atmosphere, Ghost is a tremendous page-turner you’ll struggle to put down. Memorable, strange, and haunting, I loved every page!’

Liz Hyder

‘A powerful and gripping ghost story as chilling and suspenseful as a walk alone through the woods on a midwinter night... Finbar Hawkins has a gift for making myth and magic thrillingly real, woven into the world around us. Spellbinding storytelling that will haunt the imagination long after the final page.’

Clare Furniss

'Finbar draws us into his ghostly tale with his own special dark magic! Compelling, intense storytelling'

Julia Green

'With whispers of mythology yet totally fresh, Ghost is woven with haunting gossamer prose... I was held in the story's exquisite spell from start to finish'

Rachel Delahaye

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