Books Inc. Mountain View is thrilled to welcome Miranda Sun to the shop, for the launch of her debut YA novel, If I Have to be Haunted!
Miranda will be joined in conversation by beloved authors Allison Saft & Ava Reid.
Cemetery Boys meets Legendborn in this romantic YA contemporary fantasy debut that follows a teenage Chinese American ghost speaker who (reluctantly) makes a deal to raise her nemesis from the dead.
Cara Tang doesn’t want to be haunted.
Look, the dead have issues, and Cara has enough of her own. Her overbearing mother insists she be the “perfect” Chinese American daughter—which means suppressing her ghost-speaking powers—and she keeps getting into fights with Zacharias Coleson, the local golden boy whose smirk makes her want to set things on fire.
Then she stumbles across Zach’s dead body in the woods. He’s even more infuriating as a ghost, but Cara’s the only one who can see him—and save him.
Agreeing to resurrect him puts her at odds with her mother, draws her into a dangerous liminal world of monsters and magic—and worse, leaves her stuck with Zach. Yet as she and Zach grow closer, forced to depend on each other to survive, Cara finds the most terrifying thing is that she might not hate him so much after all.
Maybe this is why her mother warned her about ghosts.
Delightful and compulsively readable, this contemporary fantasy features a snarky voice, a magnetic enemies-to-lovers romance, and a spirited adventure through a magical, unpredictable world hidden within our own.
"A fast-paced, electric gem of a story. Miranda Sun crafts a perfect adventure story that mixes beguiling prose with a gorgeous cultural element. Cara is a heroine that I adore and a heroine that readers today absolutely need." -Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Foul Lady Fortune
"A dynamic and delightful debut! Come for the banter and romance and stay for the heart-warming relationships!” -Kat Cho, New York Times bestselling author of Once Upon a K-Prom
"An imaginative, big-hearted debut about legacy and familial expectation." -Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic
"Thrilling, heartbreaking, and hilarious." -F.C. Yee, New York Times bestselling author of the Chronicles of the Avatar series
"A magical adventure where ghosts, grannies, and grades are equally terrifying—perfect for the spooky season." -Gina Chen, New York Times bestselling author of Violet Made of Thorns
"I loved every minute of Miranda Sun’s charming and imaginative debut! The romance between Cara the ghost speaker and Zach, her recently dead rival, is adorable, bantery fun — I couldn’t get enough of it!" -Vanessa Len, author of Only a Monster
"Gorgeous, atmospheric, and deeply delightful, this is the kind of book that comes alive from the very first page and haunts you long after the last. With smooth, vivid prose, Miranda Sun deftly explores the space between life and death, love and hate, and the real and imagined." -Ann Liang, author of If You Could See the Sun
“Debut author Sun keeps the character dynamics feeling fresh and energetic via snappy dialogue and descriptions of Cara’s growing into her powers.” -Publishers Weekly
Miranda Sun is a storyteller by nature and wordsmith by trade. A lover of science as well as mythology, she’s fond of exploring museums and aquariums wherever she goes. She makes her home in Chicagoland, where she drinks iced coffee in the dead of winter and keeps an eye out for magic hidden in plain sight. Visit her online at themirandasun.com.
Allison Saft is the author of eerie and critically acclaimed romantic fantasies, Down Comes the Night and A Far Wilder Magic. After receiving her MA in English literature from Tulane University, she moved from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast, where she spends her time hiking the redwoods and practicing aerial silks.
Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.
