This book is a five star for me. It might not be for you, I don't know.

I have been reading Brian Keene for a few years now. I have read about 90% of what is out there, minus any special editions. Certainly all of the main books. Also, even though I am not a fiction writer, I am fascinated by the process and the pain of being one. Through Goodreads I have even gotten to know a few very talented writers. I believe that a writer of fiction doesn't just create stories in his or her head and transfer them to the page for our enjoyment. I think that good fiction writers mine their own soul for pain, joy, love and loss and share these experiences with the reader in the form of the story lines and characters in their works. They are their characters. Hemingway said you can't write about war unless you have been on the battlefield. His scenes of war ring so true with the reader simply because they are. They happened. He is processing them, if you will. Keene says that writing is a form of therapy and I know that many authors agree with that statement.

I loved this book for the same reasons I enjoyed Stephen King's "On Writing." It pulls aside the curtain and lets us see how it all works. The practicalities and finances as well as the courage it takes to share that much of yourself with strangers. Also the cost of being a slave to one's muse.

I respect Keene as a writer, and enjoy his books immensely. Those two concepts don't always go hand in hand. There are plenty of great writers who I can't stand reading and plenty of writers that I enjoy despite the fact that they really aren't artists by anyone's standards. Keene is both, in my opinion, and I enjoyed getting to know him a bit better.

5 stars and a favorite for me. ( )

I enjoyed this book very much. This was not a scary horror story. It is more of a creepy ghost story. There is also some insight into the day to day life of a professional writer. I felt like this was very well written, and I would have been happy if it was even longer. ( )

I really like Brian Keene. Both the products of his writing and the person he presents to the public. I feel a connection to and affiliation with him. To a degree, I shouldn't really since from what I know of his life, we don't have that much in common from our younger lives. However, it's his ruminations over the last few years that has built my man crush for him. His concerns about life and friends and the world and death have struck a chord within me. They are all things about which I find myself thinking. He's only one year younger than me and I suppose it's a natural thing to ponder at this stage of life. Death is on my mind a lot more now than 20 years ago.

Anyway, THE GIRL ON THE GLIDER ends up addressing exactly these points. Keene has said that the story is semi-autobiographical; I remember him saying "completely true up to a specific point." The book reads that way too. He continually mentions real life friends and authors by name and discusses his life as he also describes it on his podcast. The story itself is a straight-forward ghost story: a girl dies in a horrible accident near Keene's house and then spooky things start happening.

What keeps it gripping and creates the emotional impact is how real life surrounds the event. The readers aren't in some isolated small town or ancient castle or haunted house. We're sharing a bourbon and cigar with a friend as he tells about what happened to him. It's real. While it's probably due in part to the events actually happening to Keene (to a point) but it's also due to his power as a writer. Looking back, the story follows all the markings of the ghost stories of 100 years ago: a person, almost always a man, is sitting with another person, also almost always a man, drinking a bourbon and recanting a story that was told to him and which is difficult to believe. However, instead of feeling old, the story feels new. It's a modern version of that same ghost story. Instead of ending with an old-school, 100-year old hook, Keene's denouement is thoughtful and powerful and evokes thoughts on life and death. It left me wistful and hopeful. ( )

A personal and insightful first person ghost story told by horror author Brian Keene. The Girl on the Glider is a novella written in journal form detailing the haunting of Keene's Pennsylvania home following a car accident that took place just outside his property. As Keene explains the events that followed the incident, the reader gains insight into the struggles facing a mid-tier author in a declining economy and the thought processes of a writer facing the very ghost stories that he creates. Personal, engaging and highly recommended. ( )