A small number of cameras have the ability to capture ghosts on film. This gift comes at a steep price; the ghosts are resentful and hungry, and the cameras offer them a rare chance to reach their favourite prey… humans.

Jenine doesn’t know any of this when she finds an abandoned Polaroid camera in a lighthouse. At first she assumes the ghostly shapes in the photos are a glitch or a prank – but then the spirits begin to hunt her down, and she’s forced into a deadly race to free herself from the camera’s curse.

Thanks to Patchwork Press and Netgalley for my review copy

At 118 pages long Ghost Camera by Darcy Coates is a short but engaging read. The story focuses on Jenine, she finds an old Polaroid camera in an abandoned lighthouse and is delighted to find that it still works. After snapping a few pictures Jenine is unsettled to find that there are ghostly figures appearing in the pictures she has taken.

Turning to her friend Bree for advice, together the pair try to make some sense out of what they may be seeing in the pictures. The more photographs they take, the more obvious (and hostile) the ghostly figures are in the resultant images.

With Jenine facing a constant threat the race is on to find someone who can help free her from the attentions of the ghosts, however, the only person who seems to understand the problem does not want to talk with her!

I really enjoyed how Darcy Coates managed to build up the sense of growing menace during Ghost Camera. Initially Jenine is unnerved by the images she sees, however, her anxiety soon grows and she starts to realise that she is constantly surrounded by ghostly figures and that they are beginning to be able to make their presence felt. The author conveyed Janine’s growing fear really well and as I read I got caught up in the building tension.

The logistics of how the titular Ghost Camera worked and how it exposed Janine to danger was excellent. I am a big fan of a simple idea being worked well and Darcy Coates nails it here. The explanation of the camera was introduced at exactly the right point in the story and incorporated in such a way that it did not feel that explanations were being forced upon us.

It has been a while since I read a ‘proper’ ghost story but I thoroughly enjoyed Ghost Camera and it whet my appetite for more supernatural thrills.