The Invisible World

DEBUT Fussner’s debut novel pulls readers in behind the scenes of a ghost-hunting reality show and its cast of characters through the lens of cameras, recorders, interviews, and potentially unreliable narrators. As the plot unfolds, the characters discover that they are more likely haunted by their own failures, not a ghost in the basement. But then again, there are inexplicable things happening on- and off-set surrounding the film crew, the paranormal investigators, and the hosts of the supposedly haunted house. At the center of the haunting are two women searching for answers: Sandra, the show’s reluctant producer, and Eve, the overeager subject of the episode. Their individual truths—and the truths of those around them—leach into the plot through partial transcripts of interviews and first-person observations that take readers down a winding road of trauma, time slips, hallucinations, and personal revelations. Fussner has polished the jagged edges of the typical haunted-house novel through subtlety and sleight of hand, making its composition all the more unsettling for the audience.