My favorite memories of school as a kid were, without a doubt, always the Scholastic Book Fair. I would stop in multiple times to pick up the books that interested me the most (a few months back I reviewed The Hunger Games after my brother found my childhood copy that I had purchased from the book fair one year). One book fair purchase that always lingered in my mind was a young-adult ghost story: Ruined by Paula Morris.

The story follows Rebecca Brown, a teenager who’s been raised in New York City by her single dad ever since the untimely death of her mother. In 2008, her dad has to travel to China for an extended business trip, so he sends Rebecca to stay in post-Katrina New Orleans with a family friend for the months he’ll be away – her eccentric “Aunt” Claudia, a single mom who reads tarot cards for a living.

Claudia’s house is located right by the historic Lafayette Cemetery, where a girl named Lisette was buried without her name in the 1850s after a very suspicious death involving one of the town’s most prominent families.

One night, Rebecca sneaks into the cemetery and befriends the ghost of Lisette. But without giving too much of the plot away, Rebecca begins to question whether she can truly trust this specter.

This is written at a level that’s comfortable for a young teen to read, and you can tell a lot of research went into the development of the story. The book explores the historical relevance of voodoo culture in New Orleans, as well as racial tension and the deeply flawed southern class system. For someone like me who has never actually been to the city, this book paints a vivid image of New Orleans. If you enjoy fiction that transports you to a new place, this is a really fun read.

I never actually realized there was a sequel as well, so that’s being added to my ever-growing TBR list.

I have no idea where my childhood copy ended up, but thankfully it was pretty cheap on Kindle – and you know I love using my Kindle to binge-read a good ghost story in the middle of the night. Curling up with all my pillows and blankets in the dark set the perfect mood for this one, and I easily knocked it out in under two days (and that was me pacing myself).

For younger readers looking to get into the horror genre, this is a great introduction if you want something that feels a bit more mature than a Mary Downing Hahn book (which, by the way, check out my review of The Doll in the Garden here).

This was just the book I needed for a good binge-reading weekend at home, and I fully recommend it!