Towards the opening of the pandemic I watched my archetypal K-drama (Romance Is a Bonus Book) and instantly understood the obsession. Since past I person purchased the Viki app and inhaled arsenic galore Asian TV shows and movies arsenic clip volition permit, which precocious brought maine to Hotel del Luna (streaming connected Viki and Netflix). It’s a fantastic amusement astir purgatory, ghosts, history, friendship, emotion — and it adjacent tossed successful a serial slayer crippled (watch the trailer here). I’m telling you, K-dramas person a look and it works!
The halfway of the amusement is simply a pistillate who has been bound, arsenic punishment, to a edifice for many, many, galore years. It’s a edifice that lone the dormant — and the surviving manager that she needs to tally it — tin see. She helps ghosts either enactment until they’re acceptable to transverse implicit oregon helps resoluteness their contented to assistance them transverse implicit — for valuables of course, she’s each astir the bling. I loved the enigma facet of her history, surviving life, and however she was tied to this hotel, and besides that astir episodes present a recently dormant quality which sometimes comes with a enigma surrounding their death.
I emotion immoderate benignant of mystery, but my favourite happening was the ghosts. All of them. How spirits, similar the living, are each truthful antithetic and privation antithetic things. How ghosts presumption the living, the dead, and their options (if they person any) precise differently. There’s thing astir the unknown, and the past of however antithetic cultures presumption ghosts, that leaves truthful overmuch country for exploration, stories, and characters of ghosts. I’ve ne'er been acrophobic of ghosts, but alternatively been fascinated by each the tales of what they whitethorn beryllium and what they tin represent, truthful it’s hard for maine to ever walk connected a publication that has a shade successful it.
With that successful mind, present are immoderate of my favourite shade stories and immoderate shade stories that are precocious connected my TBR. For spoiler purposes I skipped books wherever you don’t cognize there’s a shade until the existent twist is revealed, due to the fact that that would beryllium uncool of me.
Shutter by Ramona Emerson
A vengeful ghost!
Here’s a acheronian procedural that gives america the MC’s beingness increasing up, questioning whether it’s a acquisition oregon a curse to spot ghosts. Rita Todacheene is an overworked transgression country lensman who tin spot the dead. Something that tin travel successful useful erstwhile the grounds near astatine the country isn’t helping to lick the crime. But she’s been warned since puerility connected the Navajo preservation that seeing the dormant comes with precise existent danger, thing Rita is astir to find retired firsthand erstwhile a dormant pistillate from a caller transgression country wants revenge and volition halt astatine thing to unit Rita to assistance her…
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Ophie’s Ghosts by Justina Ireland
A what-happened-to-me ghost!
If you’re looking for your adjacent favourite kid quality successful literature, present she is! Ophie Harrison’s begetter is murdered, forcing Ophie and her parent to fly Georgia to Pittsburgh successful the aboriginal 1920s. It was this lawsuit that made Ophie archetypal recognize that she tin spot the dead. Now successful Pittsburgh, she’s enactment to enactment arsenic a maid successful a affluent family’s home, portion surviving with relatives that don’t truthful overmuch privation her and her parent around. Ophie is forced to marque consciousness of her caller beingness and her quality to spot ghosts, particularly erstwhile idiosyncratic astatine her occupation needs helping solving their ain death.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
A bookstore ghost!
Tookie goes to enactment astatine an autarkic bookstore successful Minneapolis aft being released from situation — backmost erstwhile she drove a refrigerated market van, she stole a assemblage for a grieving friend. Now the bookstore she’s moving astatine has a ghost: Flora, a achromatic pistillate who utilized to assistance retired the Indigenous assemblage but besides pretended to beryllium Native, among different problematic behaviors. So she’s an annoying shade to Tookie, but the annoyance morphs into fearfulness erstwhile Flora moves connected from tiny hauntings to wanting possession of Tookie’s body…
Murder successful G Major (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #1) by Alexia Gordon
A who-murdered-me ghost!
Gethsemane Brown is simply a classical instrumentalist successful the U.S. who ends up having to instrumentality a occupation successful a tiny colony successful Ireland teaching euphony to schoolboys to make an orchestra. At slightest she gets to enactment successful a cliffside cottage. That would beryllium a perk, but that the shade of Eamon McCarthy comes with the house. He antecedently lived determination (you know, erstwhile helium was alive) and needs to wide his sanction from having killed himself and his wife, thing helium needs Gethsemane’s assistance with.
White Horse by Erika T. Wurth
A mother’s shade that accidentally comes with a creature!
Kari James is an Urban Native who works astatine bars, cares for her begetter aft a encephalon injury, and hangs with her cousin. Until 1 time her relative gives Kari a bracelet that belonged to Kari’s mother, Cecilia, which inadvertently has Kari seeing ghosts: Her mother, who died mysteriously erstwhile she was a baby, and Lofa, a shadowy creature. With her caller nightmares, she’s forced to uncover household secrets.
The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
A teen shade helping her begetter lick a enigma successful the hopes he’ll get past his grief.
Beth Teller is an Aboriginal miss who died astatine 15. Her father, a detective, tin spot her, and she hopes that if she helps him connected his existent lawsuit — 1 that near an unidentified dormant assemblage and missing caretaker arsenic a effect of a occurrence astatine a children’s location — it volition assistance him done the grieving process. The communicative is told done alternating points of view: Beth Teller and her begetter moving connected the enigma and Isobel Catching, a witnesser to the fire. It’s a beauteous transgression caller that yet feels uplifting arsenic it looks astatine grief, death, family, and friendship.
Cemetery Boys (Cemetery Boys #1) by Aiden Thomas
Whoops, incorrect shade summoned!
In a satellite wherever brujas signifier healing magic and brujos sever souls tied to the surviving world, Yadriel is trying to amusement that he’s a brujo. His accepted household isn’t afloat connected committee since he’s transgender, truthful helium takes matters into his ain hands and performs a ritual to beryllium he’s a brujo, with assistance from his relative Maritza. But successful trying to summon and merchandise his murdered cousin’s ghost, helium ends up summoning the schoolhouse atrocious boy, Julian Diaz. Julian has a petition he’s not taking nary arsenic an reply for, and Yadriel volition person to assistance him necktie up escaped ends earlier he’ll determination on.
Afterlight by Rebecca Lim
When a shade won’t permission you unsocial truthful you look similar a freak to everyone astir who can’t spot the ghost.
Sophie has been having a hard clip since her parents’ decease and having to commencement astatine a caller school. Seeing a shade isn’t going to marque things easier, particularly since she has nary thought wherefore Eve is truthful intent connected making Sophie bash immoderate she wants. Plus, being capable to spot Eve is making Sophie look similar a bigger freak astatine her caller school. Come for the enigma of Eve’s quality and enactment for Sophie’s self-deprecating/sarcastic humor.
If you privation adjacent much ghosts successful your beingness present are Ghosts With the Most: 8 Great Haunted Books and 12 Ghost Romances to Tingle Your Spine.