HAUNTING MELODY

A queer ghost hunter is on the hunt not just for a ghost but a murderer.

Everyone expects Melody Myere to be as talented a ghost hunter as her parents are. But when she fails her First Sacred Hunt following an unfortunate confrontation with a wraith, she brings shame to her family. Hoping for a fresh start, her parents take an assignment on Murkmore, a dump of an island where two adult men and three high school boys have “turned up as mutilated, ectoplasm-covered corpses.” While her parents focus on their task, Melody, who’s white, is determined to prove—to herself as well as everyone else—that she’s a worthy ghost hunter. What Melody doesn’t anticipate is meeting Cyrus Paredes-Pantazis, a butch violinist of Greek and Ecuadorian descent who doesn’t know that she’s a ghost. An unlikely romance develops between the two as Melody tries to find out how Cyrus died. There’s a dangerous connection between the two teens because Cyrus is slowly deteriorating, and she’s a ghost whom Melody should be capturing, not canoodling with. Melody is also proving to be a skilled detective; the closer she gets to the truth, the more imperiled she becomes. The narrative is filled with surprises, as well as further insights into the complexities of ghost culture.

Illuminating, riveting, and entertaining: a fantastic foray into a ghost hunter’s worst nightmare.