If I Have to Be Haunted -- Miranda Sun, Hardcover

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.

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.

Delightful and compulsively readable, this contemporary fantasy has something for every reader: a snarky voice, a magnetic enemies-to-lovers romance, and a spirited adventure through a magical, unpredictable world hidden within our own.

Author: Miranda Sun
Publisher: Harperteen
Published: 09/26/2023
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.35h x 5.51w x 1.26d
ISBN: 9780063252769
Age Range: 13-UP

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/31/2023
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2023
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 10/01/2023