THE GHOST OF US

A ghost hunter finds more than she ever expected.

With her plans to leave her small Washington town on the fringes of Seattle in shambles, 18-year-old Cara Weaver puts all her hopes into her YouTube channel, “Caranormal Activity.” She heads to a local abandoned paper mill, the site of many tragedies, including as recently as last year, when high school senior Aiden Reyes fell to his death. To Cara’s utter shock, Aiden can communicate with her (and her alone), manifesting as a whispered voice in her ear. But she needs more proof than that to validate her discovery. Aiden, however, wants to focus on what he believes is his ghostly “unfinished business”: helping Meredith, his younger sister, be happy again by having Cara take her to prom. This scenario fortunately manages never to dip too far into manipulative territory, and when it looks like it might, other characters (for example, Cara’s Christian best friend, who’s in on the scheme) thankfully call it out. Meredith and Cara’s intense sexual attraction for one another does a lot of the heavy lifting for their rapidly developing relationship. The novel explores the spiritual at times, but only in passing. Solid pacing will keep the pages turning, and readers will be drawn into the girls' love story. Cara, who’s bisexual, reads white; Meredith is gay, and she and her brother are cued Latine.

A light paranormal story centering on a sweet queer romance and teens navigating big changes.