The Ghosts of Heaven

The Ghosts of Heaven is a Junior Library Guild book.[5]

The novel received starred reviews from Booklist,[6] Kirkus Reviews,[7] School Library Journal.[8] Kirkus called the novel "haunting," saying, "this complex masterpiece is for sophisticated readers of any age."[7] Booklist wrote,

Each story is linked only tenuously, emitting mere echoes in the others, but those tenuous links leave ominous gaps that are heavy with significance. The aesthetic beauty of the spiral is pivotal, to be sure, but as Sedgwick notes the ubiquity of the shape—as a powerful sign, a healing comfort, a menacing horror, a frightening message—he also imparts its beauty and power with a growing sense of awesome terror, as if the more we contemplate the beautiful, infinite spiral, the harder it is to bear. This is profoundly heady stuff, and Sedgwick twines the threads together effortlessly in sparely written, gorgeous lines that tug at something deeper than heartstrings. It’s a graceful exploration of a sometimes comforting, sometimes distressing mystery of the universe, and the unsettling combination of meaning and emptiness will linger long after the last page.[6]

Publishers Weekly also reviewed the book, saying, "Sedgwick ... doesn’t shy from the tragedy inherent in human interaction; these are not cheerful stories, and their protagonists don’t fare well, although their deeds resonate in small ways through history. Readers who like untangling puzzles will enjoy parsing the threads knitting together this corkscrew of tales."[9]