This is a cute and spooky read for upper elementary and middle grades readers. It’s an easy read and is pretty pitch-perfect for the intended audience. For an adult reader, it’s a bit thin on the ground. But still cute. And still full of thoughtful thoughts and kid-problems. And hopefully the premise is intriguing, because it’s really similar to the trilogy I’m currently working on.

Cassidy drowned, but she was saved. Since then, she’s able to pull back the veil between the living and the dead and she has a new best friend who’s a ghost. It was already complicated being the daughter of paranormal experts and influencers, but now that she’s so different from everyone around her… Then her parents get the opportunity to make a paranormal TV series, and they have to head to Scotland to start filming right away. Did they mention that Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities in the world? Which means the ghosts in Scotland are going to mean business much more than the ghosts Cassie’s encountered at home.

I was panicking about my comps (comparables) for the manuscript I was pitching at a conference after last-minute feedback that the ones I had weren’t right. I headed to a local bookstore with my husband and asked a bookseller for some help. Soon enough, half the booksellers were flitting around the store and heaping books into my arms. I took a few home, including City of Ghosts. I knew the age category was way off, but the premise was as close as it could get for that difference in age. So I was curious.

I read a chapter or two of each of the books and decided on my comps (you don’t have to read a book in order to use if for comps, but I was trying to get the vibes, at least) and decided this was probably too young. Nonetheless, I wasn’t sure, so I brought it along to the conference. Amidst the stress and busyness, this light, children’s chapter book was a perfect read for those fifteen-minute waiting times. And relaxing before bed. Because this book, for someone my age, is anything but scary. It’s cute and simple and predictable. But for a kid interested in reading ghost stories? This would be perfect because it’s accessible without being gory or terrifying.

Speaking of comps, the comps I’ve seen for City of Ghosts are way off. Stranger Things and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children are meant for a much older audience, and I don’t see any sort of crossover really happening, unless you’re someone like me who reads across many genres and way outside her age range. Stranger Things and Miss Peregrine are much heavier and intense than City of Ghosts because of the intended audience (which for those two are anywhere from YA to adult). Also more gore. More PDA. None of that is here. It’s spooky and it’s real, but it also has the necessary gentleness I would want in a book for a kid this age. I’ve seen it listed as middle grades and even YA, but I would say it’s young MG, if not elementary age. (The age of the MC is 12!) If you have a fourth grader who loves to read and wants something creepier, then this is it. Likewise for 7th grader, though they could be less of a reader.

The Cassidy Blake series is

• City of Ghosts
• Tunnel of Bones
• Bridge of Souls

 It looks like the Cassidy Blake series is complete at a trilogy.

Here are the notes I took while reading: City of Ghosts is so very MG. Not all MG is like that. Some of the classics are a little more versatile, more universal, but this is a young character and a stripped down style that really works best for actual kids. City of Ghosts is the beginning of a trilogy, and while I enjoyed it, I don’t need to continue. I get the point. I read it because I was looking for comps and the premise is similar to my novel’s, but the tone is all wrong, like there is a world of difference between this type of MG and my type of YA. The book was fine, even for an adult who reads MG, but so stripped down. It weighs in at 285 pages with giant margins, large font, and ample space between lines. There is mild character development and straight-forward plots that keep the mysteries pretty obvious. While we get the perspective, ruminations, and problems (some metaphorical) of a twelve-year-old girl, they are kept hopeful and not tremendously complex. Which is all appropriate for a reader of this age. While labeled middle grades horror, I am reluctant to slap that tag on there. I think many adults would go straight in their minds to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or the jump scares of R. L. Stine. City of Ghosts is much more nuanced, almost allegorical, and while scary at times (and murder and child abduction are mentioned repeatedly), it’s still handled without grossness or gore or even that gut-knotting darkness. This is more of a tour de supernatural.

I cared. And it was cute. But at 45, I didn’t care that much and it wasn’t that cute. Also, more importantly, Schwab wasn’t especially careful about scene blocking, and there were several times that I couldn’t quite picture what was happening or what I was given didn’t quite work out in space and time. While I would not say this is a great book—even for a ten-year-old—I would recommend it for a kid looking for a spooky mystery or who comes right out and asks for “horror.” Plenty of people are going to find Cassidy charming and the setting intriguing and the world-building clean and clear. From there, it’s up to your imagination.

I would like to read some of Schwab’s work for older readers, especially, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

For a long time, I have been confused. I thought that V. E. Schwab and V. C. Andrews were the same person. And then the mainstream popularity of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue made me wonder. And finally, somehow it became clear to me that the author of Vicious was not the author of the stabby trade paperback Flowers in the Attic. Which I’m probably mis-remembering anyways and confusing it with Christopher Pike. I hated slasher horror, even as a teen.

V. E. Schwab is also Victoria Schwab, though I have seen the two names interchanged on covers of her books (my City of Ghosts says V. W. Schwab), so I’m not sure they are distinctive to genres or age groups, anymore. Schwab was born in 1987 and grew up in Tennessee. She went to school in St. Louis and was considering astrophysics when she changed paths to literature. She sold her first book, The Near Witch, to Disney in 2011. People really started noticing her with the publication of Vicious, a superhero revenge thriller. She continued to write and sell well until her 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue won awards and skyrocketed her fame (even during the Pandemic).

Notable works:

• Vicious (fantasy, YA/new adult)
• A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) (fantasy, adult)
• A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2)
• A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3)
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (fantasy/romance/historical, YA)
• First Kill (teen vampire TV series)

Her website can he found HERE but it is currently under construction (December 2024).

“But the laughter makes space in my chest, clears out the fear and nerves as I reach for the Veil” (p12).

“Nothing happens until it happens. And then it’s already happening” (p56).

“There’s a reason people think they see ghosts in the dark, when lights and shadows can mess with your sight” (p62).

“’No shame in being scared,’ he counters. ‘But there’s a difference between being scared and being scared away” (p181).

Looks like it might have been optioned to CW in 2018 and then been moved to ABC, but there is little to no indication that this book series is currently being made into a movie or TV series. There is a City of Ghosts TV series which has nothing to do with this story.