Description
Readers of Emily X.R. Pan, Nina LaCour, and Dustin Thao will fall for this story that explores what it means to believe - in ghosts, in the people you love, and in yourself.
Natalie and Imogen are inseparable, and wildly different - Imogen is infuriatingly humble and incredibly intelligent, while Natalie is brave, jumping into danger and new adventures. Still, one thing ties them together: their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen is a true believer, while Natalie sees ghost stories as nothing but pure fun.
Then, Imogen suddenly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition that no one saw coming, and Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone.
Without Imogen, Natalie throws herself into her senior project. Her passion is still horror, so she plans to spend her summer back at the Harlow Hotel recording fun fake footage that will get her on the teen ghost hunting show of her dreams. And her plans would be a lot less complicated if Leander, her irritatingly attractive arch rival from school, wasn't working on his senior project at the very same hotel.
The longer Natalie stays at the Harlow Hotel, the more she realizes that Leander might be helpful for her project. After all, she could use an extra hand to help record her fake footage.
But, when strange things start happening at the Harlow, Natalie wonders, could there really be something to these ghosts after all?
Review
This is the tender story of a teen navigating the sudden loss of her best friend and the grief that follows.
Natalie and Imogen have been best friends forever with a shared passion for horror and ghost stories. Their summer holidays spent at Harlow Hotel, a resort that was established by spiritualists, have always been lots of fun.
But after Imogen’s sudden death, Natalie is unsure how her final year senior project - to record fake footage and try to get onto her favourite tv show Ghost Chasers - will go.
Then Leander Hall arrives. The guy from school who everyone dislikes because of his Truth Hurts articles that are always aimed at ticking people off. Leander is also doing his project at the hotel, and eventually they decide it would be best if they worked together.
As they go along, Leander is trying to prove that it is impossible to communicate with the dead, while Natalie keeps having connections with Imogen. But are they real or imagined?
This story asks many questions - the biggest being can grief and loss shape what we want to believe? And can this make us imagine things? It also explores how connections can remain through memories and deeds that can honour people no longer with us.
This is a touching story with themes of grief, ghosts, moving on, and a romance as well. This will be loved by readers aged 13 and up.
