The first thing I need to give credit to this book for is one of the very few instances of text messages actually feeling genuine/realistic in the book. LOL. I usually HATE modern stories just because the text messages (that are inevitable, because a modern story would feel instantly out of place if cell phones just don’t exist for no reason???) feel inauthentic and just weird. Like either the author has the text messages typed out the same way an email would be written, or it’s the complete opposite where EVERYTHING is in chat-speak or acronyms and typo-ridden.

If I Have To Be Haunted puts the texting right in the middle, with varying instances among the friends, because hey—we all text differently the same way we all speak differently. So one of Cara’s friends does lean more “proper” in her text messages, and another one of her friends is on the way opposite and with “u” instead of “you” and using the spam method of sending messages (one after another—I am also guilty of this). It was just a really refreshing moment to have and I need to document it, lmao.

Anyway, moving on to the real stuff:

I flipflopped between 4 and 5 stars, settling on 4.5 because while I don’t think I’m walking away from this book feeling obsessed with it, I did really enjoy my time reading it. It was a lot of fun. It the heart/sweetness of it reminded me of the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before books, but if you took that level of cuteness and enjoyable characters, and then dropped them all into a fantasy world.

What I liked:
- Even though we only saw Cara’s friends for a tiny bit, I loved how genuine their friendship felt. As I mentioned above, text message conversations usually make me die a little inside, but theirs didn’t.
I get really nervous picking up books that are set in/around high school, because they are often geared towards readers younger than me and I don’t enjoy them the same way. But this one was really fun. It relied more on the adventure than the romance. And I was obsessed with the different “liminal worlds” they were exploring. This book was immediately added to my “books I wish were movies” list, just because I would love to see these fantastical worlds on a screen.

What I didn't like:
- I was getting frustrated with Cara’s stubbornness in holding onto her coldness towards Zach. Like as we were getting towards the later part of the story, I’m like PLEAAASSEEE JUST SAY YOU LOVE HIM ALREADY STOP HURTING THE POOR BOY’S FEELINGS I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
- I do wish the liminal worlds/people who lived there was explained better. I fully believed that Brittney was someone from another universe, and I was confused AF when they were able to keep in touch at the end of the book.
- The epilogue...??????? Does that mean we’re getting a second book?????? (I would absolutely read it, but I do hate when books aren’t upfront about being an on-going series, because I don’t take book notes if I believe a book is a stand-alone story.) ( )

Delectable adventure, good moments. So cute. ( )