To Feel Stuff

If you thought your sophomore-year bout of mono was nasty, consider the case of Elodie Harrington. Plagued by everything from seizures to tuberculosis, Elodie moves into her college infirmary only to develop another affliction: seeing ghosts. While Andrea Seigel masterfully slips into and out of the voices of three narrators — enigmatic Elodie, who recalls Freud’s famous patient Dora; Elodie’s gregarious boyfriend, Chess; and Professor Kirschling (channeling Sigmund), who believes he can solve Elodie’s medical mystery — she fails to create a compelling protagonist in To Feel Stuff. In particular, her male characters aren’t articulate or reliable enough to illuminate the true Elodie or her supernatural secret.