Hi friends! I hope you’re having an amazing fall/spring so far! It’s been both hot and cold here, but that just makes it the perfect weather for spooky books. If I Have to Be Haunted is that perfect book!
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Quick Synopsis
Cemetery Boys meets Legendborn in this thrillingly romantic, irresistibly fun YA contemporary fantasy debut following a teenage Chinese American ghost speaker who (reluctantly) makes a deal to raise her nemesis from the dead.
Perfect for readers who want:
- Rivals to Lovers
- Ghostly quests and shenanigans
- Spooky haunted forest
About If I Have to Be Haunted
Title: If I Have to Be Haunted
Author: Miranda Sun
Rating: 4 Stars
Genre: Paranormal
Content Warnings: Mentions of death
Pages: 368
Age Range: 15+
Publisher: HarperTeen
Date Published: 26 September 2023
Goodreads Description: Cara Tang doesn’t want to be haunted.
Look, the dead have issues, and Cara has enough of her own. Her overbearing mother insists she be the “perfect” Chinese American daughter—which means suppressing her ghost-speaking powers—and she keeps getting into fights with Zacharias Coleson, the local golden boy whose smirk makes her want to set things on fire.
Then she stumbles across Zach’s dead body in the woods. He’s even more infuriating as a ghost, but Cara’s the only one who can see him—and save him.
Agreeing to resurrect him puts her at odds with her mother, draws her into a dangerous liminal world of monsters and magic—and worse, leaves her stuck with Zach. Yet as she and Zach grow closer, forced to depend on each other to survive, Cara finds the most terrifying thing is that she might not hate him so much after all.
Maybe this is why her mother warned her about ghosts.
I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
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If I Have to Be Haunted Review
I’d like to compare this book to one of my favourite movies – The Duff. Not that If I Have to Be Haunted and The Duff have anything in common plot-wise, but both of these things gave me that giggling-kicking-my-feet kind of feeling.
At the end of the movie when he gets the girl, and at the end of the book when I they get together, just gave me the biggest smile. It made me so happy, and recently I’ve not read many books that just made me happy.
If I Have To Be Haunted is such a fun book that will unexpectedly hit you in the feels. It’s peak rivals to lovers, but it also deals with families and mother-daughter relationships. I enjoyed it so much.
I also enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot. I’m hoping we get another book in this series, as it left on a bit of a twist and there are side characters who definitely deserve their own books.
This was one of those books that I could easily see in my head. It felt more like watching a CW show (the good ones) than reading, and I would honestly pay good money to have this be made into a show. The writing was so vivid and colourful. It’s the perfect spooky, autumn read.
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THIS HAS NO RIGHT SOUNDING AS GOOD AS IT DOES i love your review
I laughed aloud when you mentioned it being like one of the “good” CW shows haha! I knew exactly what you meant right away! This actually sounds like such a fun book to me and I might have to add it to my TBR for my October reads 🙂