Josiah's Reviews > Ghosts I Have Been
Ghosts I Have Been (Blossom Culp, #2)
by
by

Shifting the first-person perspective from Alexander Armsworth to his friend/rival Blossom Culp, we revisit Bluff City, Missouri in 1913 to experience history through the eyes of a young spiritualist. Blossom, in her early teens, has been less than close with Alexander since the events of The Ghost Belonged to Me, but circumstances draw them together via Miss Gertrude Dabney. She is a middle-aged woman of traditional English manner, who asks Blossom to placate the ghost of a Dabney family servant named Minerva who hanged herself decades ago. Blossom's success earns Miss Dabney's undying gratitude.
Blossom and Alexander are pulled into a con game by a Professor Regis, who publicly conjures a “spirit� to absolve Miss Dabney’s guilty feelings over her father's death. Blossom doubts the charade, and discovers Regis’s British preteen helper, Sybil, who knows every trick in the book of feigned spiritualism. Blossom's revelation of the scam boosts her own popularity but leads to demands that she prove her gift of Second Sight…a demonstration even Blossom is shocked to see materialize in front of witnesses. Blossom’s spirit is teleported aboard the ship Titanic during its final hours nearly two years ago, into the same passenger cabin as a troubled blonde child named Julian Poindexter. What is Blossom to do with detailed knowledge of his dying moments?
"There is nothing more real than fear, fight it though you may."
�Ghosts I Have Been, P. 125
Miss Dabney is elated beyond outsider comprehension when England's Queen Mary invites Blossom, as a result of her Titanic vision, to Buckingham Palace. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean with Miss Dabney and Alexander in a vessel much like the Titanic, Blossom waits for her Second Sight to put her aboard the doomed ship again to sit with young Julian while his parents abandon him to death at sea. Blossom hasn't the power to alter his fate, just hold his hand in the moment of whelming fear. Perhaps that is Blossom's purpose with Miss Dabney, Alexander, and for all her remaining days.
"I wonder why in storybooks only three wishes are offered, when in real life they are never enough."
—Miss Dabney, P. 75
Ghosts I Have Been is an improvement on The Ghost Belonged to Me. Blossom is a more interesting narrator than Alexander, and the story has better variety. The most compelling person is Julian, who cannot escape his doom no matter how Blossom intervenes. On this basis Ghosts I Have Been could have turned out to be a great novel, but it is too distracted by competing plots. I rate it two and a half stars, but I like how the series is trending and am open to The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp being the best entry so far.
Blossom and Alexander are pulled into a con game by a Professor Regis, who publicly conjures a “spirit� to absolve Miss Dabney’s guilty feelings over her father's death. Blossom doubts the charade, and discovers Regis’s British preteen helper, Sybil, who knows every trick in the book of feigned spiritualism. Blossom's revelation of the scam boosts her own popularity but leads to demands that she prove her gift of Second Sight…a demonstration even Blossom is shocked to see materialize in front of witnesses. Blossom’s spirit is teleported aboard the ship Titanic during its final hours nearly two years ago, into the same passenger cabin as a troubled blonde child named Julian Poindexter. What is Blossom to do with detailed knowledge of his dying moments?
"There is nothing more real than fear, fight it though you may."
�Ghosts I Have Been, P. 125
Miss Dabney is elated beyond outsider comprehension when England's Queen Mary invites Blossom, as a result of her Titanic vision, to Buckingham Palace. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean with Miss Dabney and Alexander in a vessel much like the Titanic, Blossom waits for her Second Sight to put her aboard the doomed ship again to sit with young Julian while his parents abandon him to death at sea. Blossom hasn't the power to alter his fate, just hold his hand in the moment of whelming fear. Perhaps that is Blossom's purpose with Miss Dabney, Alexander, and for all her remaining days.
"I wonder why in storybooks only three wishes are offered, when in real life they are never enough."
—Miss Dabney, P. 75
Ghosts I Have Been is an improvement on The Ghost Belonged to Me. Blossom is a more interesting narrator than Alexander, and the story has better variety. The most compelling person is Julian, who cannot escape his doom no matter how Blossom intervenes. On this basis Ghosts I Have Been could have turned out to be a great novel, but it is too distracted by competing plots. I rate it two and a half stars, but I like how the series is trending and am open to The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp being the best entry so far.
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Quotes Josiah Liked

“I wonder why in storybooks only three wishes are offered, when in real life they are never enough.”
― Ghosts I Have Been
― Ghosts I Have Been
Reading Progress
March 16, 2025
–
Started Reading
March 16, 2025
– Shelved
March 16, 2025
–
2.8%
"Cover art by Charles Shields. It isn't a flattering portrait of, I assume, Blossom Culp. She looks closer to sixty years old than fourteen."
page
6
March 17, 2025
–
35.98%
""I wonder why in storybooks only three wishes are offered, when in real life they are never enough."
—Miss Dabney, P. 75"
page
77
—Miss Dabney, P. 75"
March 17, 2025
–
58.41%
""There is nothing more real than fear, fight it though you may."
Ìýâ€�Ghosts I Have Been, P. 125"
page
125
Ìýâ€�Ghosts I Have Been, P. 125"
March 18, 2025
–
Finished Reading