paperprivateer 's review for:

Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman

4.0

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I haven’t read anything else by Rachel Hartman or in the world of Seraphina (although I’ve wanted to!), so this was my introduction to this world. I’m also not the biggest fan of ghost stories, plagues, or bugs. Those things could have easily combined into me not liking this book, but actually I enjoyed the book a lot and will moving the rest of the books in this world up in my reading priority list.

Like I mentioned, I don’t do well with ghost stories, especially spooky ones. There were certainly spooky ghost elements here, but I’m glad I stuck with it. The ghost elements went deeper – and sweeter – than I anticipated, and I was pleasantly surprised with how the ghosts were varied and complex. I enjoyed the resolutions to their individual stories. It’s a slow build-up to a lot of the elements of the book, which almost made me want to reread to catch what I missed the first time that was setting up later parts of the plot or information about the characters.

I loved the characters in this book. Charl has a lot of courage and heart, and I love his sensitivity and determination even when difficult things are happening. His mother is inspiring and lovable. We got to know Sister Agnes and Sir Aris a little less than some other characters, but I still adored them. Mother Trude is complex, but I found her compelling and layered. Even the characters that might only appear for a single scene are interesting and fun. I personally found there were too many POVs, making it a little bit harder to follow or distracting from the main storyline even when I enjoyed the individual chapters.

Some elements of the book are inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic, and as a result, it touches on isolation, fear, polarizing views, blaming people when there aren’t clear answers, and losing empathy for people. The ghost elements and some of the character backgrounds also deal with some difficult topics. The slower build to get to some of these reveals or big topics help add to the overall book and come at the right time for each.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot and think it is ideal for middle grade or younger YA readers who love some elements of spookiness with a lot of heart.