🏳️‍🌈Rep: Questioning MC, Asian/Black Nonbinary SC, POC & Queer SCs

THIS BOOK NEEDS TO BE AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE!! I am beyond grateful to Matteo L Cerilli for the early copy of this book because this story was hauntingly beautiful and these characters were uniquely special and captured my heart. I truly enjoyed reading this book and going on a paranormal adventure with Nero, Flick, and Emily as they fought to save Arlo. 

Nero was so excited to start at her new school and hopeful that she wouldn’t end up just being the weird kid again. That’s especially difficult when you are 12 years old and your lifelong best friend is a ghost. It gets even harder when your best friend starts changing from a friendly ghost more like a poltergeist and you don’t know why. It also makes it very difficult to make new friends, even if you might want them. But somehow, even though Nero didn’t want to be Emily Le’s friend, and kept pushing Flick away to keep them safe - the three still end up creating an amazing friendship. 

One of the things I love most about this story is that it is a reminder to embrace and cherish our weirdness. Nero and Flick were both so desperate to not be seen as the weird kid anymore. Nero was trying to “normal” and make new friends. Flick was trying to avoid having anxiety attacks in front of his classmates. And Emily was trying so hard to fit in that she felt she had to perfect all the time and wanted to control everything she could. Together they all started to embrace those parts of themselves they were afraid of their classmates and the world rejecting. And they started to learn that maybe being weird was actually pretty cool. They were learning that the goal is not to try to fit in, but to find the people you fit WITH. 

I also want to talk about how much I love the way Matteo handled the multiple pronoun usage for Flick. He, she, and they were used for Flick throughout the entire story and it was done so incredibly well. I absolutely LOVE seeing this kind of nonbinary rep in books - especially in middle grade books. 

I also love horror books and the paranormal elements and the whole backstory to who Arlo was and why he was there and then changing - just so many incredible layers of this mystery being peeled back one at a time and I was here for it! I truly loved this story. It was spooky and sweet and hit me in all the feels!