This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic 
 A Reunion of Ghosts is the story of three sisters - Vee, Lady and Delph. They've always been close. Maybe a little too close. But as far as they were concerned, they were all each other had. When Vee got cancer, when Lady tried to commit suicide and when Delph wanted to hide away from the world they turn to each other. 
 It's not entirely their own fault that they shut themselves off from the world. They're burdened by what they believe to be the family curse. They believe their great grandfather did something so horrible that his sins are trickling down all the way to the fourth generation. Just like the Kennedys. But instead of assassinations and plane crashes, their family is constantly done in by suicides. Delph's even made them a handy chart to keep track. 
 So when Vee's cancer returns with a vengeance, they decide there's only one thing for them to do. They'll die together. They have no heirs. They're the last generation - the curse will end with them. But before they go, they're going to write a note - a note detailing their family history and what led them to this final destination. And that note is this book. 
 A Reunion of Ghosts is a challenging read - and not just because it's a giant suicide note. That's actually the least of it. Sometimes it's easy to forget that's what these three sisters are writing it for. It's challenging because the history involved, the format of the novel and the voice. And none of that is a bad thing, it just meant I had to adjust my expectations as I was reading. 
 Let's start with the history, because for these three sisters, history is everything. (The history is also closely tied into the format.) Their great grandfather, Lenz Alter was a scientist. Technically, so was their great grandmother - she was the first woman in Germany to attend university and receive her PhD. Although her dreams of working alongside her husband in the lab were never realized. But the curse begins with Lenz, not because he kept his wife out of the lab, but because of what he invented in there. It was called the "manna project" and it was a fertilizer intended to save the world. However, when war broke out they realized it could be put to other uses as well, and behold! chemical warfare was born. 
 The novel jumps back and forth quite frequently between the girls in the present, and their ancestors before them. At times, when it jumped back to tell the story from the perspective of one of these ancestors it could be difficult to keep everyone and all the events straight. It felt a little like I was being ping-ponged throughout history. Their fictional history was fascinating however, and it's easy to understand why they might think they were cursed. Though at times it took me a minute to get my bearings, I ultimately think having the history interspersed throughout the text, worked better for Vee, Lady and Delph's character development than had Judith Claire Mitchell chosen a more linear style. Immediately after you read about an important event in their family history, you were able to understand what the trickle down effect was for the rest of the family. 
 The interwoven history and characters isn't the only thing that makes A Reunion of Ghosts unique - there's also the voice. A Reunion of Ghosts is written in first person plural. Instead of "I" statements, everything is written in "we" statements. It is in every way Vee, Lady, and Delph's shared story, they are three parts of one whole. The only other book I've ever read in this format is Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters. It's a style that seems to lend itself perfectly to stories about siblings - different people, forever linked by their shared history and blood. 
 At times A Reunion of Ghosts can be frustrating. It can be frustrating to read about this deeply flawed family and their deeply flawed decisions over the years. It can also be frustrating to play witness to the sisters's fatalist attitude when there are other options in front of them every step of the way. But it's frustrating in a good way. It's frustrating because in every other way you love these characters. They're quirky, weird and they love puns (girls after my own heart). They're the kind of people I would want to hang around with if they hadn't decided to avoid all other human contact. It doesn't matter that this book is complicated and frustrating, in the end it's impossible to put down.