REVIEW: Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella

 

I thought that I would be reading another Secret History type mystery that is a coming of age at a college - this time Harvard. Maybe it would be historical too.  But it wasn't really about any of those things.

Cady Archer is first met on her moving in day - she's a freshman at Harvard. Her brother, Eric, was also a student there but we learn right off the bat that he was a schizophrenic that committed suicide the academic year before Cady starts. Quite a legacy. So when Cady starts hearing voices on her first day of class - voices that belong to people that have an historical connection to the university - Cady learns not only about the university, but about the voices themselves and they seem to guide her too. THey also lead Cady to question whether she really belongs at the university and make her scared that she is suffering from the onset of the same mental health issues that beset her brother. Cady travels around Harvard, and the area of Cambridge around it, in the hopes of figuring out what happened to her brother.

This novel blends together a number of different genres: coming of age, drama, mystery, thriller. It dealt with issues related to suicide and mental health: treatment, what happens when a person doesn't want treatment, the impact of suicide on families, survivor guilt. It also deals with history: who gets to tell the story, and why is the story being told the way it is?  One of the ghosts, for instance, was a slave named Bilhah, who was a real person that was owned by one of the first Presidents of the university.  We learn about the horror of her story during her interactions with Cady, and we learn about how Harvard has seemingly glossed over that portion of its history. 

I generally enjoyed the portrayals of the history of the university and I definitely appreciated the way that Ms. Serritella (who is the daughter of author Lisa Scottoline) dealt with the issues related to mental health. It was not overbearing at all and, at times, was heartbreaking but realistic. It was a quick and easy read, although it could have been about 50-75 pages shorter.  

Definitely worth the read, but one to get from your library and not your local bookstore.