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OLDER FICTION
Hartman, Rachel

Among Ghosts

400 pp. | Random | June, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9780593813720 $20.99 | Library ISBN 9780593813751 $23.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593813744 $10.99
(2) YA In this novel set in the world of Hartman's Seraphina volumes (most recently In the Serpent's Wake, rev. 5/22), soggy St. Muckle's is a "peasants' paradise": after staying a year and a day, anyone may win independence from husband, master, or lord. Charl's mother brought him there to escape his abusive father, hoping Charl, now thirteen, could grow up in peace. But the local bully won't let that happen; nor will Charl's father, who bribes three vulnerable figures to retrieve him: a spy who unleashes a deadly plague; a dragon happy to burn St. Muckle's to the ground (if only it weren't so damp); and Mother Trude, a treacherous abbess with her own secret history to expiate. Life becomes even more difficult for Charl when he takes refuge in an old abbey haunted by the ghosts of a vicious bishop and several murdered girls. How could these ancient girls possibly help Charl—and he them? Hartman's many plots, subplots, dramatic events, and images create a suitably overwhelming tangle of circumstance, identity, and motivation. Here, remorse, forgetfulness, and repression come to the foreground in the ghosts' ability both to share and to evoke painful memories, offering a complex consideration of the mistakes and compromises that are inevitable parts of growing and living. In addition, subtly, quietly, Hartman allows us to perceive Charl's transgender identity, a welcome, nourished aspect of his being.
Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

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