Some of my favorite books are not about the living, they’re about the dead. There’s just something about a good ghost story. Haunting and melancholic, terrifying and reflective—a ghost story asks questions about the liminal space between this life and the next, the grief that follows the passing of a loved one, the sorrow and anger that might linger with dead themselves, and the very idea of the afterlife.
These questions are frightening, but the answers found in fiction—perhaps draped in the familiar white sheet floating down the hallway, the cool draft that sweeps beneath the door, the unseen hand resting on your shoulder—are often quite beautiful and even hopeful.
In my debut novel, Saint Delilah, Delilah wakes up to a new reality: she is dead, her broken body lying before her in the woods where she was discarded. She questions more than what lies ahead, where she might go next, if it’s even possible; she questions who would do such a thing to a woman, and how she might make it right—by making it wrong.
Delilah’s story is a tale of revenge, but it’s set in the liminal space that sits alongside the here and the now, where she is followed by the grief of her young life taken too soon, too violently, but also creatures that feed on her suffering, a stubborn hope in her heart that there is more for her in the end.
Speaking of the end, I also enjoy novels that are less about ghosts and more about the afterlife itself, finding new and curious ways to explore that space that is so unknown. These books share many of the same themes as ghost stories, but I find they feel a little less horrific and oftentimes more fantastical as they invite us to consider what life after death might look like and feel like and how our earthly connections might haunt us back.
I was inspired by many books while writing Saint Delilah, and though they weren’t all ghost stories, here are five haunting yet hopeful books about ghosts and the afterlife that I love, including two very original takes on the genre.
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Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
This novel opens with the death of fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon and then follows her through the afterlife as she witnesses her family’s struggle to come to terms with her unsolved murder. It is one of my all-time favorites. Saint Delilah is often compared to The Lovely Bones, and I am so proud of that!
I wouldn’t say this book is a ghost story, though Susie’s family and friends can sometimes feel her presence. It is a story about the afterlife, or the “InBetween” as it’s named in the book. Susie’s life after death is richly imagined, and the pain Sebold weaves into the ongoing lives of Susie’s family is visceral and gutting and honest, and yet, there is still hope even if justice is elusive.
Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
An insanely fun genre read, Odd Thomas is face-paced, quirky, full of small town secrets, supernatural creatures, and a fry-cook protagonist who can see and interact with ghosts. A classic tale of Good vs. Evil, soul-mate level love with a tear-jerking ending, Odd Thomas is proof that ghost stories can be entertaining as hell. I’ve read this one a few times!
Graham Joyce, The Silent Land
This is a really unique read about love and how our bonds in this life can carry into the next. If you are a mood reader, or like me, a seasonal/weather reader, it’s the perfect snowy ghost story for a cold January day.
A couple, Zoe and Jake, are caught in an avalanche while on a skiing vacation and manage to dig themselves out of the snowy mountainside, only to find the resort they were staying at is completely abandoned, though still stocked with food and wine and ever-glowing candles. When the couple cannot escape the hotel we start to understand the question: did they even survive? Could anyone have survived?
I won’t ruin the book; this one will have you questioning not only what really happened to them, but the very idea of eternity and paradise.
Ainslie Hogarth, Motherthing
This is perhaps one of the most original and hilarious ghost stories, ever, in my opinion. A mother-in-law who’s back from the grave. Her daughter-in-law, Abby, who’s hell-bent on sending her back to where she came from. All Abby wants is to live a peaceful life with her husband—free of his mother’s emotional and haunting manipulations—but it’s not that simple, and it takes some ingenuity on Abby’s part to get rid of her.
This book is funny, gross, and yet, heart-warming, even if in a delusional way. A fantastic book I’ve read countless times.
Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste
Another wholly original ghost story, Kostya has a very unique supernatural ability involving his…tastebuds. Eventually, he realizes that he can feed hungry spirits and bring their loved ones closure.
This book deals with the boundary between life and death and the laws of the afterlife both beautifully and brutally, asking interesting questions about what it means to move on from our loved ones after death, and what unresolved grief does to a person. Heartbreaking, witty, suspenseful, and another tearjerker on this list, I’ve thought about this book almost daily since reading the last page.
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