Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab

Let me set the tone for you:

Cool Fact #1: Cassidy almost died, but was saved by a ghost, Jacob.
Cool Fact #2: After being rescued, Cassidy develops the ability to communicate and interact with ghosts in order to help them move on.
Cool Fact #3: Remember Jacob? Him and Cassidy are best friends, but he is becoming stronger after spending so much time in the human world.
Cool Fact #4: Oh, and I almost forgot, her parents are paranormal investigators but have no idea she can speak to ghosts.

This is all revealed in the first chapter! How can you put a book down that is dropping so many bombshells in the first chapter? Short answer, you can’t. And I didn’t.

As you can probably guess, the story follows Cassidy and Jacob hunting a particular ghost through the streets and tunnels of Paris, France. The ghost becomes more and more dangerous as time passes, and Cassidy discovers that she can’t move him on to the other side in the typical fashion. Plus, weird things are beginning to happen with Jacob. All around, Cassidy is dealing with quite a few issues all at the same time, and she starts getting stretched too thin.

I believe this is the second book in the series, and I had not read the first book, but the story was written so well that I didn’t feel out of the loop at all. It’s easily one you can read as a standalone, but I’m sure reading the first book first would have only made Tunnel of Bones even better. The story is written in first person and pulls the reader right in to the adventure. Cassidy even seems to be speaking directly to the reader and actively including them into her thought process. The story also reminds me a lot of the Ghostbusters movie, but without the humor and unrealistic ghosts.

I am not one for scary stories (or scary anything, really), but I highly recommend this book, under some conditions. You will definitely need to block out the entire day once you begin reading because you will not be able to put it down. And let me emphasize ‘day.’ This is not a book to be read at night when there are creaks, groans, and bumps in the night.

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