What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedA Ghost Story
David Lowery · Film · 2017
If you loved A Ghost Story, start with Ghosts (Mathew Baynton, 2019) — a series on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 4 series and 2 podcasts, each matched to A Ghost Story across media.
What hooked you in A Ghost Story was the way the weight of eternity is felt through intimate, lingering human experiences.
Books on the same thread
The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson · Book · 1987
Shares a thread with A Ghost Story: isolation.
Like A Ghost Story, this classic explores the profound isolation of a haunted space, where the architecture itself becomes a vessel for lingering psychological dread and unresolved human trauma.
Ghost World
Daniel Clowes · Book · 2001
Explores: Teenage angst, Female friendship, Existential dread.
If you appreciated the existential malaise of A Ghost Story, you will find a similar sense of social alienation and the bittersweet passage of time within this graphic novel.
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · Book · 2004
Explores: American Dream, Social Class, Love and Loss.
This novel mirrors the tragic desire to reclaim a lost past found in A Ghost Story, focusing on the impossible attempt to revisit a love that time has eroded.
Love Story
Erich Segal · Book · 1970
Shares a thread with A Ghost Story: Loss.
This story captures the same devastating ache of love cut short by circumstance that defines the emotional core of A Ghost Story, focusing on the permanence of deep loss.
Series on the same thread
The Leftovers
Damon Lindelof · Series · 2014
Shares 3 threads with A Ghost Story: Grief, Loss, Existential Drama.
This series serves as a spiritual companion to A Ghost Story, examining how individuals endure the crushing, quiet weight of grief and the absence of those who have vanished.
Ghosts
Mathew Baynton · Series · 2019
Explores: Inheritance, Ghosts, Marriage.
While more comedic, this show shares the premise of A Ghost Story by forcing an intimate look at how the living and the dead coexist within the same home.
The Haunting of Hill House
Mike Flanagan · Series · 2018
Shares 2 threads with A Ghost Story: Grief, Ghost Story.
This series echoes the structural melancholy of A Ghost Story, using the setting of a haunted house to peel back layers of family grief and long-held, painful secrets.
American Horror Story
Ryan Murphy · Series · 2011
Explores: Trauma, Social Commentary, Identity.
Much like the shifting temporal layers of A Ghost Story, this anthology uses a single location to witness the cyclical nature of trauma and the ghosts of the past.
Podcasts on the same thread
Unsent Podcast
Podcast · 2023
Explores: Unrequited love, Missed connections, Regret.
This podcast mirrors the quiet, reflective tone of A Ghost Story, focusing on the unspoken regrets and lingering emotional attachments that define our human experience of loss.
Heavyweight
Podcast
Explores: regret, reconciliation, second chances.
This podcast taps into the same obsession with the past found in A Ghost Story, exploring how we reconcile our current selves with the moments we left behind.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is A Ghost Story about a traditional haunting?
A Ghost Story is not a traditional haunting film. Instead of a typical horror narrative, it follows a deceased man in a white sheet who becomes unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as his suburban home and the life he once knew slowly slip away from him.
Why is the ghost in A Ghost Story stuck in his home?
In A Ghost Story, the ghost remains in his suburban home to console his bereft wife. However, he finds himself trapped in a spectral state where he is unstuck in time, unable to interact with the world as he watches his former life and loved one fade away.
Does the ghost in A Ghost Story interact with his wife?
The ghost in A Ghost Story cannot interact with his wife. He is forced to watch passively as she experiences life without him. Because he is unstuck in time, he remains a silent observer while the life he once knew slowly slips away from his reach.
What is the premise of A Ghost Story?
A Ghost Story centers on a recently deceased man who returns to his suburban home as a white-sheeted ghost. He attempts to console his wife but becomes unstuck in time, witnessing the slow passage of time as his previous life and the woman he loves move on without him.