Title: Phantom
Author: Helen Power
Pages: 384
Rating: 3 stars
Published: October 10, 2023
Publisher: CamCat Books
Thank you BookSirens, CamCat Books, and Helen Power for the ARC of Phantom!
Roz is a struggling artist living in Chicago who has a tough decision to make: lose her dominant hand for a million dollars or continue to never afford rent and food while being stalked by an insane ex-boyfriend.
After many whiskeys and terrible decisions, she takes up her benefactor's offer and gives him her left hand for 1 million dollars. She wakes up dazed and confused in her own apartment with a tremendous amount of phantom pain in her amputated hand.
Rox is willing to do anything to get the pain to go away. She starts drinking more and more while trying to get more prescription pain meds. She hits rock bottom when she is willing to do an experimental drug that isn't supposed to become addicting (haha). The only thing is she cannot drink with this drug, but of course, she does. The drug has many side effects that only occur with alcohol and the rest of her life is like a fever dream she can't escape.
My thoughts:
What initially drew me to this book was the cover. I absolutely love the wax hand on the cover! I also really enjoyed the description of the book - it made the book sound more interesting than it really was. It took me a long time to get into the book and even then it was a struggle to get through.
Roz was an infuriating character and I couldn't stand her. That's probably the point but she still drove me nuts. She was already an unstable character before she amputated her hand, but became worse in the aftermath, which let's be honest, I would be going crazy if my only option was to literally amputate a limb in order to survive.
I just wish the book lived up to its description. An incredible concept but not great execution.
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