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lambsbooks 's review for:
If I Have To Be Haunted
by Miranda Sun
“The one inch of space between you and Casper the Very Friendly Ghost when he was doing your bandages didn’t look like business. No way there was enough room for Jesus in there.”
4.25 stars
For a heartbeat, she let herself wonder what it would be like if Zacharias Coleson stayed dead.
This was a really fun read! I love books where the main characters have to go on an adventure, and having one of them dead?? Even better.
“You’re not alive anymore and I’m still forced to look at your face!”
“How are you literally dead and still this insufferable?”
I’m kidding, obviously, but it was such a unique plot point, Zach being a ghost, and I enjoyed it a lot! Normally, I’m a die-hard enemies to lovers, but this rivalry was top-notch!
“Sorry to break it to you, but you’re not the first person who’s ever kicked the bucket and turned into a ghost. And unfortunately for you, I don’t care enough about you to stick around and enjoy the show.”
I about DIED when she started insulting him after he died, like, get it girl!
Technically, Zach had won, but only because he slipped halfway down, slicing his arm open on a stray wire in the mesh, and fell the rest of the way to the ground. Cara wasn’t the one who’d spent the night getting stitched up in the ER, so really, who had been the real winner there?
I love how they were always at each others’ throats and Cara’s viciousness didn’t disappear when Zach died, she just continued on insulting him like a badass!
“Don’t talk,” she whispered. “Let me handle this.”
“Why can’t I talk?” Zach complained. “She can’t even hear me.”
“Yes, but I can, so shut up.”
Banter is my one true love. Give me banter or give me death.
“And how are you sure you’re not imagining me right now?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Maybe I am.”
“So touch me,” he said. “Make me real.”
There were lots of funny moments, which by now, you should all know I love! Even in the face of death, Cara had something witty or sarcastic to say.
Wasn’t that what they were all doing? Whenever you put on a seat belt or wore a helmet, you were delaying the inevitable, hitting snooze on a clock that continued to count down. Pulling the blanket over your head and telling Death, “Just five more minutes, please.”
She was also incredibly brave despite the literal horrors they faced on this quest and I love brave characters. There is one point where a ghost is trying to kill Zach and the ghost ignores her, you know, thinking she wasn’t a threat: “You,” she said, despite her bruised windpipe, “should have been paying attention to me.”
YES GIRL!
“It was only you. It has always been only you.”
“Go ahead, break my heart. I don’t mind. You’re a flame I would happily let burn me alive.”
This is definitely a book of “he falls first” and I really do love that trope, it’s adorable! Zach was the perfect golden-retriever-marshmallow-ghost-boy-thing and I love him.
And suddenly Zach was in front of her, brandishing a stalactite like a sword. “Like hell you’re touching her,” he said, voice low and dangerous. And tremoring. Just the tiniest bit. Zach?
“Coleson—”
“Stay behind me,” he ordered. “If it wants you, it’s gonna have to go through me first.”
We also had some “touch her and die” moments and I was living for those!
“I’m glad you’re not dead, so I will ground you only for the next six weeks.”
Cara’s mouth fell open. “The next six weeks?”
“Did you think I would be so grateful you were alive I would let you off with no consequences?”
I hope we get to see more of her family (Zach’s family can rot in hell) because I’m interested to see how everything will play out.
Thank you so much to the author and HarperTeen/HarperCollins Children's Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!