Books: The Saturday Night Ghost Club By Craig Davidson (2019)

“Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls--a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place--Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the "Saturday Night Ghost Club." But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly lighthearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined.”

At its heart, this coming-of-age tale reminds me much of Stephen King -which the author acknowledges in his afterword –but also included other great writers of the era for young adults, John Bellairs, Wilson Rawls, and Judy Blume, for their influences cover the pages of this short novel (or, maybe, a novella). It’s told in a flashback format, with now neurosurgeon Jake talking about his twelfth summer, when new friends entered his life, where the school bully hung around, and an eccentric uncle who seemly is lost, but unaware of that fact.

For those born in the 70s, but came of age in the 80’s, there is a lot to connections that may trigger memories. Much like Stranger Things, which tapped into an era of great movies, TV shows, and spooky novels, The Saturday Night Ghost Club captures the era in great detail; especially if you were one of those kids that did not fit in with everyone else the nerds, the misfits, the lonely.

The book is sort of magical, bittersweet, with just enough creepy to keep you going (and one cannot escape the notion that this book resembles King’s The Body in structure). Davidson’s prose digs deep and while you can sort of see the ending, it does not ruin what is an undiscovered gem of novel (released in 2019!!!) that gets lost at the bookstore or library. A book that deserves a bit more attention, to be enjoyed by today’s kids as much as their parents who grew up in one of the best decades, before the 1990s ruined it all. 

Davidson has also written five novels under the name of Patrick Lestewka, and five horror novels under the name Nick Cutter.