If I Have To Be Haunted Readalong: Day 1!

Stunning photo by @aurora_reading_

Hello fairy friends!

Happy Monday and welcome to day 1 of our readalong ofIf I Have To Be Haunted by Miranda Sun. I’m so excited to be reading this one with you, I hope you all love it!

Before we get into the book, how are we all doing today? I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of great books and relaxing vibes!

Since today is day 1, we’ll be reading from the beginning to the end of Chapter 7. It’s time to get comfy and cosy with our book and get started!

When you’ve finished today’s section, catch up with me in the comments down below so we can discuss the beginning of the book. Happy reading!

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Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for If I Have To Be Haunted by Miranda Sun from the beginning to Chapter 7. Please only read on if you have finished this section!

-!SPOILERS!-

Did the first line of this book have anyone else immediately intrigued? Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? We start with a captivating but slightly sinister first chapter where we are introduced to our protagonist Cara, who can see Ghosts. The fact that her birthday is on Halloween is truly iconic, I love this character just for that reason alone. Although I’m not sure I’d like the ability to see ghosts…

We also get introduced to Cara’s friends and their plans to visit a new haunted house on Halloween, where spectres are very likely to be found. Halloween is a day when the veil between the planes of the living and the dead thinned, enabling all kinds of ghosts to possess the ability to act upon the breathing – even pulling out your beating heart… Okay, Halloween in this world is genuinely scary. Where is Casper the friendly ghost when you need him?

In just a few pages we are introduced to Zacharias Coleson; Cara’s nemesis and soon to be Ghost boy. The first interaction we see them have is an argument that really sets the tone of their tumultuous relationship. Cara has torn down Zach’s swim team tryout posters and put them in the trash because he put them over all her cross-country posters. Naturally, they begin to insult each other – I just know this will have a good hate-to-love romance. And I am already excited for it!

“Do you ever think about anyone else, or does your ego have a monopoly on all your brain cells up in there” I get the sense that only does she really not like Zach, but she is also fierce and very funny. (I kind of want her to be my fictional bestie.)

During their little argument, we do get an insight into the kind of life that Cara and Zach each lead. Cara is known to stay at home all the time and study due to pressure from her mother, whereas Zach comes from a very privileged background and uses it to his advantage. This obviously puts them at odds with one another. Zach and his family are very financially secure and I suspect Cara is maybe a little jealous and this is part of the reason she dislikes him so much. But let’s circle back to the fact their town is named Autumn Falls because that sounds like my literal dream town and I love the fact that their town is named that. My autumn-loving heart is very happy.

We also find out that Cara’s grandmother Laolao is a ghost too and I have a sneaky suspicion that she will have a big part to play later in the story. What do you guys think?

As Cara and Zach continue to argue she suddenly sees silver out of the corner of her eye in the cafeteria. Two new ghosts have entered the room, a woman and a man. They stopped at each table observing whoever was sat there almost clinically, conferring with each other before moving on. Cara realises they are testing to see if people can see them which is highly unusual and very creepy… Do you think they are looking for Cara specifically?

Are you all as obsessed with the setting of this book so far as I am? “On either side of the avenue, trees stretched into the crisp blue sky, their crimson leaves so brilliant it was as if they’d been enchanted.” I cannot get enough of the descriptions. “Enough warmth still haunted the late October air that patrons could sit on the patio, enjoying the last of the season’s sunshine as they sipped their coffees.” AND it’s set in October?! 10/10 level perfection. I am also very intrigued by the ‘Wildwoods’ behind Cara’s house, it sounds very eerie and magical. Do you think it could be haunted or maybe even magical?

Cara observes two ghosts sitting at the coffee shop together who she assumes where high school sweethearts. We then learn that her grandmother Laolao had told her about the ‘red string of fate’ from Chinese culture, and that the threads of blood in your body have a string which connects from your heart to the heart of the one yours is meant to be with. The Chinese mythology woven into the story is so interesting and I wonder if maybe Cara and Zach will share that thread? What do you think?

“To be a ghost speaker was to push that curtain aside. To look into the dark and see something look back.”

As Cara observes the ghost couple the man suddenly says “It’s a bad time to be a ghost in Autumn Falls. Now that you’re here we should go elsewhere – until all this blows over. Until they find the ghost speaker.” The only living ghost speaker Cara knows of in Autumn Falls is herself, so could they be looking for her? and if so why? I have a bad feeling that Cara is going to get caught up in something dangerous…

After Cara witnesses a fatal car accident on her way home from the grocery store with her mother she seeks comfort from Laolao about it who uses a term of endearment “xiagoui”- little ghost – to which Cara remarks her mother had never called her. It seems that Cara and her mother do not have the best relationship as her mother disapproves of being a ghost speaker. She tries to enforce this belief onto Cara and also forces herself into losing the ability to see or speak to ghosts. Therefore Cara’s mom does not speak to Laolao, nor participate in anything about ghosts and wants Cara to do the same. Hiding the fact she does see ghosts as well as Laolao must be really tough for Cara when it comes to her mom.

The next day to their absolute horror Zach and Cara are paired up together for an assignment and they then agree to meet at Cara’s old treehouse to work on their project together. Zach remarks it’s an unforgettable place since it’s where Cara had set his shirt on fire but she claims she threw a pinecone at him and it caught fire all by itself at the same time. Is anyone else wondering if this is foreshadowing something or magic-related somehow? 👀

They agreed to meet there that night at five. Suddenly all of the windows shatter in their classroom as a swarm of terrified bats invades the room. In the chaos of it all Zach grabs Cara’s hand and tugs her down under a lab bench to safety. She ends up in Zach’s arms pressed against his chest. I just love seeing the forced proximity trope in a literal way… Cara suspects that this is no coincidence with the strange way the ghosts have been acting and something more sinister must be at play. Her suspicions are confirmed when she can see one of the bats up close, finding that it has a raised perfect circle on its back. She then notices it on all of the bats and it seems it’s related to ghosts as only she can see it on them and not Zach.

Cara waits for Zach at the treehouse and when it passes five o’clock and he still hasn’t turned up she sends him a barrage of texts. Eventually she gives up on waiting and begins the walk home through the Wildwoods. “Even in her anger she could appreciate how the Wildwoods rose around her like an oil painting, a palette of ground-level browns and greens and, up above, ruby and sulfur and amber. Leaves crackled in her wake, the crisp bones of fall splintering under her soles. A late October zephyr suffused her lungs with what could only be described as Autumn: the aroma of loam, sun-dried, sun-warmed earth; cider, somehow; cedar and pine; and underneath it all, the bite-the cold, coming.” The descriptions of the setting in this book are so well done that I almost feel as if I too am walking through the Wildwoods on a late October today. If only! Anyone else want to take an autumnal stroll in the Wildwood?

Cara suddenly realised she had been walking in a totally different direction from where she had intended. She spots the familiar oak tree used as a marker on her path home but a few minutes later she walks past it again… there is trickery afoot! It is also then that she notices a trail of crushed leaves and wonders if it could have been where Zach had walked and gotten lost. As she walks following the same path the forest begins to morph into something else, the trees stunted and crumbling. She then arrives at a clearing where both the sky and landscape appear to be different too. It is here she spots a boy asleep under the largest oak tree. Cara recognises him immediately to be Zach and gets angry thinking he decided to go for a nap. Right before she goes to shake him awake she hears a voice behind her say “What are you doing?” That voice belongs to Zach but he isn’t solid the way she is. She puts her fingers to the sleeping Zach to find out there is no pulse.

Zach realises that Cara can see him and tells her that he got lost on his way to meet with her and a snake bit him on his ankle so he had decided to try and get help but stumbled out of this clearing and somehow back out of the forest. He then tried waving down cars but no one seemed to notice him so he came back to this clearing and saw her. He asks why she can see him and she informs him that he’s dead which he laughs off and doesn’t believe at first. She then also reveals that the reason she can see him is because she is a ghost speaker meaning she can see, talk and even control ghosts. “How are you literally dead and still this insufferable?” even in death they still bicker but I have to say I love their almost aggressive banter and dynamic. Zach then begs her to help him as he thinks his death is some kind of mistake to which Cara says she can’t do anything but inform the police – Zach threatens to haunt her.

“I’ll haunt you for the rest of your life”. “You wouldn’t dare”. It’s official, I love them.

Cara notices his form isn’t like a usual ghost and she wouldn’t even believe he was dead if it wasn’t for his body on the ground. He is also able to touch her without her hands passing right through him. She decides something isn’t right and takes him home with her where she hopes Laolao can help. When they arrive back at her house she tells her grandmother that she found him in the Wildwoods and that she can touch him. Zach begins to explain what happened to him and at the mention of a snake Laolao stiffens. She asks him to draw the snake that bit him and begins to tremble once the sketch is finished. Laolao places a book on the table with the same snake Zach had drawn on the open page. The Signet Snake: an intelligent agent of chaos leaving death in its wake, every time it appears destruction occurs in due course. The book also reveals that a flower called the ‘analyx’ is thought to be a potential antidote but it is not confirmed. It is also rumoured that whoever is bitten gains enhanced powers. No one bitten by the Signet Snake has ever returned from death. It doesn’t merely kill its victim but turns them into a ghost, their essence cut loose from their body by the venom. The victim has seven days from the exact moment of their death to be re-tethered before they fade away completely with the help of a living ghost speaker. Cara agrees to help him when he says he will pay her a large sum of money and get a letter of recommendation from her father to whichever dean she chooses. I find it kind of mean that she won’t just help him anyway. Cara, Zach and Laolao then head back to the Wildwood to hide his body.

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What a beginning! So much has happened already, I am so excited for what’s to come in tomorrow’s chapters.

Do you think it is a coincidence that the ghosts seem to be looking for a ghost speaker/Cara and then Zach suddenly gets bit by this Signet Snake?

What do you think of the dynamic between Cara and Zach?

What is your favourite thing about the book so far?

See you tomorrow for another day of reading!

Love,
Jodie