A review by booktalkwithrae
If I Have to Be Haunted by Miranda Sun

adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I’m going to be honest this book is really hard to write and talk about because I just feel like there’s nothing to talk about. This book was just pure boredom for me. The characters were interesting at first, but as the story progressed, they just kind of flatlined for me. Even when there were side characters that joined the journey, it just felt like they all jumbled into one character. They all felt the same to me.

The premise was interesting, but as the plot started to progress, it just flatlined and became boring for me. 

The romance had such a good set up, and then, just as I mentioned about the plot and the characters the romance flatlined for me, and it just became boring. The characters felt like they had zero chemistry aside from the very beginning of the book and there was no satisfaction when the characters got together. 

I know this is a YA book so I don’t expect the characters to be completely mature. But they really felt immature, like 10 or 12-year-olds. I’ve never read anything by this author, so I’m not sure if this is common with her writing style, but for me, the writing was boring, and had way too much long descriptions of what the character was thinking, as opposed to using their actions and words to diversify the writing. There would be long paragraphs upon paragraphs of not a single person talking, and maybe it’s just me because I really like good dialogue, but after reading pages with little to no dialogue, I was always wondering what did I just read?

I rarely rate books this low, and it honestly hurts to write a book this slow, but this book really just wasn’t for me. I do think there are many people out there, who are going to love this book, but this one was a no for me.