The Ghost of Us
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jun 11, 2024
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- $11.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"I was in a slump where I hated everything I read, and The Ghost of Us lifted me right out of it. Absolutely fantastic." —Dan Wells, bestselling author of I Am Not a Serial Killer
One Last Stop meets Cemetery Boys in this swoony YA romance from beloved author James L. Sutter.
Eighteen-year-old ghost hunter Cara is determined to escape life as a high school outcast by finding proof of the supernatural. Yet when she stumbles upon the spirit of Aiden, a popular upperclassman who died the previous year, she learns that ghosts have goals of their own. In the wake of his death, Aiden’s little sister, Meredith, has become a depressed recluse, and Aiden can’t pass on into the afterlife until he knows she’ll be okay. Believing that nothing pulls someone out of a slump like romance, he makes Cara a deal: seduce Meredith out of her shell and take her to prom, and Aiden will give Cara all the evidence she needs for fame. If not, well—no dates, no ghost.
Wooing the standoffish Meredith isn’t going to be easy, however. With Aiden’s coaching, Cara slowly manages to win Meredith over—but finds herself accidentally falling for her in the process. Worse yet: as Meredith gets happier and Aiden’s mission nears completion, his ghost begins to fade. Can Cara continue to date Meredith under false pretenses, especially if it means Aiden will vanish forever? Or should she tell Meredith the truth, and risk both of them hating her? And either way, will she lose her only shot at proving ghosts are real?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Due to past trauma surrounding peer reactions to her queer identity, Cara Weaver, 18, can't wait to escape Stossel, Wash. After receiving rejections from all the colleges she applied to, however, she's anticipating another year at home, and believes her only ticket out of Stossel is finding success with her ghost-hunting YouTube channel, Caranormal Activity. So, when she accidentally stumbles upon the spirit of deceased former classmate Aiden Reyes, she endeavors to use his presence to prove that ghosts are real. But Aiden will only help Cara if she takes his sister Meredith to prom, an act that he hopes will draw Meredith out of her grief-induced depression. What begins as an obligation blossoms into real romance, leaving Cara in an impossible situation—the happier she makes Meredith, the more at peace Aiden feels, causing his spirit to retreat toward the afterlife and taking Cara's dreams of escape with him. A key traumatic incident and examinations of grief are handled cursorily, and snarky, pop-culture-packed prose by Sutter (Darkhearts) at times feels preoccupied with the girls' bodies, but character personalities are nevertheless intricately and distinctly rendered. The protagonists read as white. Ages 13–up.
