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A review by themermaddie
If I Have to Be Haunted by Miranda Sun
5.0
this is one of my favourite YA romances i've read in a while. like i don't think i've had a so-called "book boyfriend" since i was like 15 but HERE HE IS, zach coleson i love you!
i am so infatuated with the world miranda sun has created here, this deathly adventure is (ironically) brought to life with an enchanting underworld setting, high stakes, and the most charming characters. cara and zach are SO MUCH FUN to watch bicker and banter and fall in love, their dynamic felt so much like realistic teenage resentment with an undercurrent of attraction, it's everything i want from childhood-rivals-to-lovers. i adore zach coleson, my sweet smooth talking boy with a quick wit and abandonment issues. he will simultaneously support cara to the ends of the earth while also reading her to filth. he is the golden retriever himbo to cara's black cat. the banter is crazy, tension off the charts (without being cringey) in a way i haven't experienced in ya in a hot sec. i fucking love these two.
cara's fraught relationship with her mother and dead grandmother was so rich with nuance, her responsibilities as a ghost speaker and her responsibility to be a good daughter tore her in two separate directions and was handled really well and set me on edge in the best way. this is the kind of YA chinese representation i would've loved as a teenager; the family ties, the culture, all tied in masterfully with cara's supernatural abilities! the lore and the world building was great, i loved the incorporation of cara's chinese heritage without making it a Chinese Myth Story™, and some of my favourite fantasy power arcs are the ones which are directly linked to the characters' emotional journeys <3
on top of all that, it's just a beautifully written book. there are so many ya fantasy books that deal with death, but this is one of the few that i feel really does it justice. i LOVE all the different stages of grief being portrayed in such fluctuating states, i loved watching them not take death seriously, confronting different kinds of death, different kinds of ghosts, the truth of passing over in different lights. the prose occasionally bleeds purple but it's lovely enough that i can overlook it for the sake of such a beautiful story.
also that cover art is beautiful and i loved looking at it while listening to this book <3
i am so infatuated with the world miranda sun has created here, this deathly adventure is (ironically) brought to life with an enchanting underworld setting, high stakes, and the most charming characters. cara and zach are SO MUCH FUN to watch bicker and banter and fall in love, their dynamic felt so much like realistic teenage resentment with an undercurrent of attraction, it's everything i want from childhood-rivals-to-lovers. i adore zach coleson, my sweet smooth talking boy with a quick wit and abandonment issues. he will simultaneously support cara to the ends of the earth while also reading her to filth. he is the golden retriever himbo to cara's black cat. the banter is crazy, tension off the charts (without being cringey) in a way i haven't experienced in ya in a hot sec. i fucking love these two.
cara's fraught relationship with her mother and dead grandmother was so rich with nuance, her responsibilities as a ghost speaker and her responsibility to be a good daughter tore her in two separate directions and was handled really well and set me on edge in the best way. this is the kind of YA chinese representation i would've loved as a teenager; the family ties, the culture, all tied in masterfully with cara's supernatural abilities! the lore and the world building was great, i loved the incorporation of cara's chinese heritage without making it a Chinese Myth Story™, and some of my favourite fantasy power arcs are the ones which are directly linked to the characters' emotional journeys <3
on top of all that, it's just a beautifully written book. there are so many ya fantasy books that deal with death, but this is one of the few that i feel really does it justice. i LOVE all the different stages of grief being portrayed in such fluctuating states, i loved watching them not take death seriously, confronting different kinds of death, different kinds of ghosts, the truth of passing over in different lights. the prose occasionally bleeds purple but it's lovely enough that i can overlook it for the sake of such a beautiful story.
also that cover art is beautiful and i loved looking at it while listening to this book <3