A (DEAD) THING LIKE ME

Five teenage girls and a Ouija board are all it takes to summon Hot Dog to Florida from the place she haunts: a hot dog cart in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When Hot Dog appears, 18-year-old Logan—the girl with the silver nose ring who’s hosting the party—asks, “Did she send you?” Hot Dog has no idea who she’s talking about; she has no memories from before she died, but she’s thrilled by the interaction because she’s a ghost, “a thing crabs like to look at and people can’t see.” Hot Dog has 14 stitches sewing her mouth shut, so uses the Ouija board to communicate with Logan, who’s grieving her best friend, Avery. A friendship develops between the white-presenting girls, something deep and complicated. Hot Dog is more than just a friendly ghost—she wants to be a normal living teen, to do the things best friends do. What Hot Dog and Logan don’t at first realize is that Logan’s house is haunted, and Hot Dog may be the only one who can protect her. This spectacular story straddles a surreal, almost mystical, line before dropping readers into the terrifying challenges of facing the ghost-eaters that can rip people’s souls from their bodies. The throughline anchoring this highly original narrative is the fierce power of love.

A gorgeously creative debut, weaving life, grief, and the spirit of friendship into a tour-de-force.