Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: Ghosted
• Author: Amanda Quain
• Publisher: Wednesday Books
• Release Date: 7/25/23
• Genre: Contemporary Fiction
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Rating: ★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: Never Have I Ever meets The X-Files in Amanda Quain’s Ghosted, a gender-bent contemporary retelling of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey. Hattie Tilney isn’t a believer. Yes, she’s a senior at America’s most (allegedly) haunted high school, Northanger Abbey. But ever since her paranormal-loving dad passed away, she’s hung up her Ghostbusters suit, put away the EMF detectors and thermal cameras, and moved on. She has enough to worry about in the land of the living–like taking care of her younger brother, Liam, while their older sister spirals out and their mother, Northanger’s formidable headmistress, buries herself in her work. If Hattie just works hard enough and keeps that overachiever mask on tight through graduation, maybe her mom will finally notice her. But the mask starts slipping when Hattie’s assigned to be an ambassador to Kit Morland, a golden retriever of a boy who’s transferred to Northanger on—what else—a ghost-hunting scholarship. The two are partnered up for an investigative project on the school’s paranormal activity, and Hattie quickly strikes a deal: Kit will present whatever ghostly evidence he can find to prove that campus is haunted, and Hattie will prove that it’s not. But as they explore the abandoned tunnels and foggy graveyards of Northanger, Hattie starts to realize that Kit might be the kind of person that makes her want to believe in something—and someone—for the first time. With her signature wit and slow burn romance, Amanda Quain turns another Austen classic on its head in this sparkling retelling that proves sometimes the ghosts are just a metaphor after all.

It is no secret that I am a massive fan of Jane Austen’s work. Her books are smart, funny, satirical…and of course, romantic. I have read my fair share of Austen retellings over the years – good, bad, and everywhere in between. I fell in love with Accomplished, Amanda Quain’s modern telling of Pride and Prejudice from Georgianna Darcy’s point of view. Quain pays such brilliant homage to Austen’s work while making the story feel new and modern. She does the same in her Northanger Abbey retelling, Ghosted.

Northanger Abbey itself can be a tough sell as a early work of Austen’s where she satirizes the gothic novels that were so popular in the late 18th century. I’ve found that modern retellings of Northanger Abbey can fall short because it is such a specific style that Austen is referencing. However, Ghosted handles it brilliantly.

Northanger Abbey’s main romantic pair are Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney. Catherine loves gothic novels and is led astray by her overactive imagination. Henry can be a little condescending in the way he shuts her theories about his mother’s death down.

As soon as I started reading Ghosted, I LOVED that the characters are gender swapped. Catherine becomes the ghost obsessed new boy, Kit, and Henry becomes the buttoned-up Hattie. Like Henry, Hattie is grieving the loss of a parent, and she definitely does shut down Kit’s obsession with ghosts. However, their dynamic definitely doesn’t feel as uneven as it does in Austen’s book.

Hattie also goes on such a beautiful journey as Kit helps her learn to process her grief over losing her father. I love the way Quain takes the entire Tilney family on such a journey through how they relate to one another. Austen’s Henry and Catherine are not necessarily static characters, but they certainly don’t go through the same growth as we see in Quain’s characters.

Quain peppers Ghosted with little Easter Eggs to those familiar with Northanger Abbey. My favorite is calling Hattie’s dream college, Udolpho, after the book Catherine Morland is obsessed with in Austen’s book.

Each character in Ghosted is painted so vividly from Kit and Hattie to the secondary characters like Hattie’s siblings and her friends Isabella and Priya. She gives each character a distinct personality and motivation which helps the whole world to come alive.

I hope Quain continues this series because I am absolutely loving it. I’m especially hoping that she takes on Emma, my favorite of Austen’s novels, next. The character building and storytelling in her books would make me recommend them even to someone who had never read the original books.