Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items19
1
Beloved (1987)
7.8/10on Open Library
Published
Years after escaping slavery, Sethe lives with the presence of the daughter she lost. The haunting makes the past part of the family’s daily life, even when people have good reason to avoid speaking about it. Start here for a ghost story that asks what remembering can cost a mother and the people trying to help her.
More about Beloved2
Lincoln in the Bardo (2017)
8.4/10on Open Library
Published
After Willie Lincoln dies, his father returns to the crypt, where the boy has joined a crowd of spirits with unfinished attachments of their own. The dead tell much of the story in a chorus that can be funny, quarrelsome, and tender. Read it for the way a private loss sounds when everyone around it has something to say.
More about Lincoln in the Bardo3
Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017)
7.4/10on Open Library
Published
Thirteen-year-old Jojo’s family drives to Mississippi’s Parchman prison to pick up his father. There, a boy who died at the prison draws Jojo toward a part of his grandfather’s past that he has only heard in fragments. Ward makes the ghost someone who wants to finish a story the living have struggled to tell.
More about Sing, Unburied, Sing4
The Reformatory (2023)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Robbie’s ability to see haints once helped him feel close to his mother. At a Florida reform school, the dead boys he sees give him a way to understand why others have gone missing. His sister Gloria’s effort to get him out makes the danger urgent while the ghosts give the boys the institution buried a place in the story.
More about The Reformatory5
The ghost bride (2013)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
In colonial Malaya, Li Lan is offered a marriage to a wealthy family’s dead son. The arrangement could secure her future, but the dead have their own claims on her. Follow her into the afterlife for a mystery in which finding out what happened to one family also changes what she knows about her own.
More about The ghost bride6
The Woman in Black (1983)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Young solicitor Arthur Kipps hears a child cry in the fog while handling a dead woman’s affairs. The sound and the woman he sees in black are pieces of a story about a family loss that the people around him are reluctant to explain. Pick this for a classic slow reveal in which knowing the ghost’s reason makes her more frightening.
More about The Woman in Black7
The ghost and Mrs. Muir (1945)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
A widowed Lucy Muir moves into an inexpensive seaside cottage and discovers that its former owner, a sea captain, still has plenty to say. She works to publish his story while trying to support her children. Their companionship gives both of them a place to be heard, which makes this an unusually warm choice for a haunting.
More about The ghost and Mrs. Muir8
Ghost Eaters (2022)
7.0/10on Open Library
Published
Erin has spent years answering her ex-boyfriend Silas’s calls for help. After he dies of an overdose, she takes a drug that lets her see the dead, hoping for the conversation they never got to have. Choose this for a grim story about how easily grief can bring back an old pattern of saying yes.
More about Ghost Eaters9
The Haunting of Velkwood
Talitha lost her mother and young sister on the night everyone in her neighborhood turned into ghosts. Twenty years later, a researcher persuades her to go back, reopening questions about the night she and two friends got away. Read it for the way an old friendship can feel unfinished even when the people in it are still alive.
More about The Haunting of Velkwood10
The haunting of Maddy Clare (2012)
7.0/10on Open Library
Published
In 1920s England, a ghost hunter hires Sarah Piper to help investigate the death of a young maid. Maddy will have nothing to do with men, so Sarah has to become the person who listens. The best part of the mystery is watching an overlooked woman figure out how to hear what another overlooked woman has been trying to say.
More about The haunting of Maddy Clare11
The Dead Romantics (2022)
7.3/10on Open Library
Published
Florence comes home for her father’s funeral and finds the ghost of her new editor at the door of the family funeral parlor. His unfinished business gives the two of them time to talk while she’s deciding what a future without her father might look like. Start here if you want a romance that leaves room for family grief and funeral-home humor.
More about The Dead Romantics12
Cemetery Boys (2020)
9.1/10on Open Library
Published
Yadriel performs a ritual to show his family he’s a brujo and intends to find the spirit of his cousin. He summons Julian Diaz instead, and Julian won’t leave until he knows what happened to him. The unexpected ghost gives Yadriel someone to help and someone with whom he can be himself.
More about Cemetery Boys13
The Ghosts of Rose Hill
Ilana discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery in Prague, where she meets Benjamin and begins restoring his grave. Their friendship opens up a city of ghosts and eventually asks her to decide what helping Benjamin might cost. The verse gives her music, her affection for him, and the history of the cemetery room to share the page.
More about The Ghosts of Rose Hill14
The Lovely Bones (2000)
6.7/10on Open Library
Published
After her murder, Susie Salmon watches from heaven as her family grieves and her killer tries to hide what he did. Her position gives her a view of the lives that continue without her, including changes she couldn’t have imagined when she was alive. Read it for the tension between a child’s wish to stay close and her family’s need to keep living.
More about The Lovely Bones15
The Dead Fathers Club (2006)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Eleven-year-old Philip sees his father’s ghost at the funeral and comes away believing his uncle caused the fatal crash. The boy still has school bullies, friendships, and doubts to deal with while he tries to act on what he’s been told. Haig’s take on Hamlet makes the ghost’s demand feel like something far too big for a child to carry.
More about The Dead Fathers Club16
A Fine and Private Place (1960)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Jonathan Rebeck has made a life of keeping the newly dead company, sometimes over a game of chess. When two ghosts fall in love, their decisions interrupt his long retreat from other people. Try this for the unexpected comfort of a ghost story that makes companionship a skill the living and the dead can learn from each other.
More about A Fine and Private Place17
A Christmas Carol (1843)
7.9/10on Open Library
Published
Scrooge first hears from his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who shows him what a lifetime of their shared priorities has left him carrying. The visits that follow put Scrooge back in the company of people he dismissed or forgot. The ghosts make him see what his choices have done to other people while he still has time to make different ones.
More about A Christmas Carol18
The Girl From The Well (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (2014)
8.7/10on Open Library
Published
Okiku has spent centuries freeing the ghosts of murdered children and punishing their killers. Then she meets Tark, a boy marked by a malevolent presence that can’t simply be destroyed without harming him. The relationship gives a ghost used to avenging the dead a reason to work out what she owes someone still alive.
More about The Girl From The Well (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)19
She Is a Haunting (2023)
7.3/10on Open Library
Published
Jade visits her estranged father in Vietnam, where a bride’s ghost starts leaving her warnings. Her father sees a home worth restoring while Jade begins to find traces of what the place meant to their ancestors. The haunting puts pressure on a relationship Jade already feels she has to perform for her father’s approval.
More about She Is a Haunting
