I'm not sure how I feel about this book. We  follow medium Alison and her cynical "assistant/manager" Collette as they strive to make a living from the public's desire to contact the dead. They both have back stories which have brought them to where they are, and Alison's is particularly traumatic. There were parts I really got into while others just seemed really disjointed and I found my mind was wandering. The juxtaposition of incredibly realistic comic writing with extremely disturbing accounts of child abuse and neglect are so disconcerting that it really threw me off balance. Above all, I found the Morris sections really irritating and difficult to read - he is Alison's repulsive, evil spirit guide who hangs out with a bunch of equally wicked petty criminals. I just didn't get what the author was aiming at with those dialogues - even in the light of what is revealed towards the end - and they almost made me abandon the book.