5 Must Read Books if you're Excited for Sixteen Souls

An older book, but a classic in the young adult ghostly horror genre, this novel has some seriously gruesome scenes, which I loved (of course). Cas, a trained teen ghost hunter goes looking for the legendary, and very dangerous, Anna Dressed In Blood, determined to end her afterlife with his deadly athame and stop her killing again. Since her death she has brutally murdered everyone who has stepped foot in the Victorian house she haunts. Except Cas.

I loved Cas’ character development in this novel and his arc is so well plotted. I read Blake's ghost hunter tale just as I was starting to work on Sixteen Souls. It taught me the tropes of the genre and helped me think about which I wanted to follow, and which I wanted to subvert. I also knew I wanted ghost hunters in my story ... but perhaps not in the way readers would expect.

Legion is a collection of adult short stories (Legion, Skin Deep, Lies of the Beholder) that build a larger overarching narrative and I think it is a hugely underrated book. Sanderson is better known for his fantasy and sci-fi epics with tight world building and revolutionary magic systems. Here he offers paired back prose and fabulous dialogue to builds a world that sits somewhere between contemporary sci-fi and psychological thriller.

There are no ghosts here. The protagonist Stephen isn’t haunted by spirits, but by aspects, hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialised skills. Technically they’re all part of him, projected from his mind to allow him to process incredible amounts of knowledge. They make him extraordinary and allow him to do amazing things he would otherwise be incapable of.

If there is one book that seeded the idea for Sixteen Souls, then it is this one. Having read it I loved the idea of an ordinary person becoming extraordinary because of a team around them, a team that only they can see and interact with. Sixteen Souls is wildly different from Legion, but I owe a great debt to it nonetheless.

In this queer young adult novel, Yadriel’s traditional Latinix family doesn’t accept that he is a true Brujo. To prove himself, he summons a ghost ... the wrong ghost. Julien Diaz was the school's resident bad boy and he has no intentions of going quietly into death. He’s determined to find out who killed him and why before he leaves. Yadriel has no choice but to help him and the longer he spends with Julien, the less he wants him to go.

This book was announced when I was only a couple of chapters from finishing my first draft of Sixteen Souls and I was so incredibly excited to read it. I had to wait a full year for the book’s release and it didn’t disappoint. Like Anna Dressed In Blood the novel features magical blades and romance with a ghost, but it still feels like a fresh take on the genre and has a fabulous twist. What makes Cemetery Boys really stand out is how rooted the magic system is in the author’s own Latinix culture. It really is a book that could only have been written by Aiden Thomas and it is a powerful coming of age story that will stand the test of time.

Like my story, Cemetery Boys is very queer and centres around ghosts. Thomas' spooky adventure is definitely one to read if you also love queer contemporary as a genre as it is lighter on the horror and stronger on the romance. I've made the romance aspects of Sixteen Souls more of a sub plot to the central mystery, rather than the focus.

Nobody ‘Bod’ Owens, would have been normal if he hadn’t been raised and educated by ghosts in the graveyard in which he lives after his family is murdered. He is friends with a witch and cared for by a guardian who belongs between worlds. But it is in the land of the living where the danger to Bod truly lies. The man who killed his family is still looking for him.

My protagonist, Charlie, gets his bravery from Bod, sort of. I read The Graveyard Book when I was about half way through Sixteen Souls, not quite believing that I hadn’t yet picked it up! The aspect that stuck with me the most was the idea of a found family, and of how interacting with the dead fundamentally changes the protagonist in physical as well as emotional ways. Like Bod, Charlie walks between worlds.



The Graveyard Book transcends target ages, but it's suitable for readers aged 11/12+

Cassidy Blake is the daughter of a ghost hunting team with a TV show, but unlike her parents, she can really see the dead. She and her family travel to Edinburgh to film an episode and Cassidy meets someone else like her, an In-betweener called Lara who can also see and speak to the dead. From Lara she learns her role is to help ghosts move beyond the veil, but the girls are being stalked by a sinister spook they call Red Raven.

This middle grade novel is the first in a series. While I’ve only read the first so far, I enjoyed it a lot and I think it has a few fun crossovers with the world of Sixteen Souls. Like Cassidy, Charlie is told that helping the dead is a duty he should perform as a ‘seer’, even if it’s dangerous. Like Cassidy, Charlie’s best friend(s) are all ghosts and he has to hide what he can do from his parents. Like, Cassidy, Charlie interacts with spooks in an ancient and famously haunted city.

Schwab sets her first book in Edinburgh, which is known for its ghost tours and bloody history. I chose York as the setting for Charlie’s story, largely because I wanted an excuse to visit the city and it has a rich history to draw on for inspiration. Turns out it is the most haunted city in Europe so I stand by my choice!