If I Have to be Haunted by Miranda Sun

e-Audio, 11:43:22
Narrated by: Catherine Ho
Release Date: September 26, 2023
Published by: HarperTeen
Read from: September 21- October 1, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Cannibalism, Racism, Racial Slurs, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury Detail
For Readers Interested In: Paranormal Romance, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, YA

     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.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I was in no way ready for how good this book was. I thought it was going to be a basic like paranormal romance with an enemies to lovers plot line, but no. This was so much more. And I learned about the Red String Theory so that was cool as well. I really enjoyed this and I can’t wait to see what more people say.

Ok so y’all know I’m not a fan of enemies to lovers romances, but this one was fun. I knew immediately they were going to get together. They were so mean to each other, but they were so cute? Their arguing was delightful. Well until he died. lol At that point he got to be annoying. I wanted to tell her just keep his ass dead lol He was so annoying. And I hate that he was putting her in the position to “haunt her” if she didn’t help him. She didn’t deserve that and he was terrible for making her feel like she did. But then again, I knew that how this would end, so I said fineeeeee.

Now when I said I knew how it would end, I still didn’t know the journey. And I think that’s where I learned what the Red String Theory was. Because Lordt knows they went through some SHIT! lol And somehow they still ended up together. (If you don’t know what the Red String Theory is, here is the definition I got from Google) Now they don’t introduce the theory at the beginning, since like I said it’s an enemies to lovers romance. But at the end, they’re able to tug on each others’ strings and I just thought that was beautiful. And for them to be in high school, I was even more blown away, because what else will they have to endure? They literally made it through death and still came out together. Nothing else they go through should have any consequences to them lol

Now I don’t want to diminish this book to saying it was a basic paranormal romance, because it was much more than that. There was some mythology mixed in as well. So this might be closer to a fantasy romance now that I think about it. Which could make sense. There’s talking snakes, cannibals, and more. And all of that kept me glued to this book because I was expecting NONE of it. And that like random fight they had with the other ghosts where the old animals were, that was intense. And then I read it before I went to bed, and let me tell you, bad idea. I don’t think I’ve had a dream from a book in a long time. But there was a mention of ectoplasm and making her into a ghost would make her taste better, and Idk why but that just creeped me out lol

The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that there was so much going on. It was hard to focus on one thing at a time. There was a quest, so of course they got caught in some of their side hijinks, and there was all the stuff that they were trying to figure out to save him. I just thought it was a bit much.

I expected none of this to be in this book. Idk why I assumed this was going to be about something basic. Because it was definitely anything but. I know better what to expect now tho. And now I also know this will most definitely NOT be my last book from Miranda Sun.

Overall, I give this