Haunting Melody is a charming & inventive sapphic murder mystery, with incredibly creative supernatural lore and a lovely coming of age arc.

Melody is absolutely miserable. She was supposed to have aced her First Sacred Hunt, especially with two renowned ghost hunters for parents. But instead, she’s left with trauma, facial scars, and humiliation.

She’s now struggling with PTSD and body image issues, so when her parents give her a chance to start over on a tiny island town, she’s all in. But even though her parents tell her to stay out of the ghost hunt that has left 3 of the island’s teenagers dead, she knows this is her one chance to prove herself. 

Except after Melody meets a local ghost, she soon realizes there may be way more at play here … and that everything she THINKS she knows about the recently deceased might not be so right.

Melody has been through a LOT, and has a lot to unpack. She’s still in denial about her toxic last relationship, she has a lot of self hatred for her new facial scars and her larger body, and she feels cut off from her former community. But while there is a lot of pain, I thought the story overall kept things upbeat and hopeful. Also, no bullying/mean girl arcs!

The mystery is engaging, and I thought the world building was very unique. I loved that ghost hunters were non-human, loved how much detail we got into their religion and culture, and loved all of the Fantastical lore overall. And as Melody shifts her thinking around the paranormal, the ghostly scenes shift as well (from spooky to heartwarming). 

I also adored the characterization of Melody’s first friend in town (Tomai) and the cute ghost girl that changes everything (Cyrus). Both Tomai and Cyrus are complicated and interesting, and both have significant arcs of their own while also building relationships with Melody. 

I really appreciated the arc between Melody, her parents, and Simon. There’s so much initially left unsaid between them, with Melody holding onto a lot of trauma and making a lot of assumptions about her parents - and her parents cutting her out instead of treating her like a full human. It was great to see them start to turn that around and become a healthier family unit. 

The internalized fatphobia was rough, and while there was a short conversation about it towards the end of the book, I did wish it was addressed earlier and we got to see more of that healing process. I think that aspect could be very triggering for young readers - and we see Melody acknowledge and accept her PTSD way more than a potential eating disorder.

A+ work on the fake fantastical musical names, though. I giggled more than once at those.

I thought the ending was very sweet and the writing style overall was very easy to digest. The pacing was quick, and the mystery was fun. The author balanced scarier elements with sweeter elements with deeper & more nuanced issues very well.

A great read for anyone who loves spooky YA, murder mysteries, and unique fantasy lore! 

CW: murder, death (child), body horror, body shaming, eating disorder, fatphobia, mental illness, panic attacks, gaslighting, kidnapping, blood, car accident, grief, fire, religious bigotry, queerphobia, toxic relationship, vomit

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)