Ponder: City of Ghosts Series

 I have read several books by V.E.Schwab and enjoyed all of  them, rating each 4 or 5 stars: 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (★★★★★) 11/14/21
The Darker Shade of Magic (★★★★★) 4/28/22
A Gathering of Shadows (★★★★☆) 5/21/22
A Conjuring of Light (★★★★☆) 5/23/22
The Fragile Threads of Power (★★★★★) 2/25/24

Then I learned that Schwab has written a series of Young Adult  books dealing with ghosts and the paranormal, published in 2019, 2020, 2022. I have two granddaughters, cousins, who are very much into Harry Potter and Percy Jackson so I decided to check out the City of Ghosts series to see if these books would appeal. I think they very much will. On Amazon they are rated 4.6 out of 5 stars.

The main character Cassidy Blake has a best friend in a ghost Jacob. Cassidy's parents' occupation is writing books on the paranormal. Over a summer Cassidy's parents decide to take a tour with Cassidy and visit the most ghost inhabited cities of the world to film and develop a TV series that parallels and complements their books. Cassidy's dad is an historian and her mom complements him with the anecdotal ghost story side of the topics.  They work together as a team.

The places on the tour are Edinburgh, Scotland for City of Ghosts, Paris for Tunnel of Bones, and New Orleans for Bridge of Souls. In Scotland I learned directly from the City of Ghosts text what I have had  to glean from other books I have read by British authors: jumper = sweater, chips = fries, chips = crisps. Each book is a travel guide for its respective city even with a map in the front pages. In Paris I learned more about the catacombs than I ever knew. I saw the record holding causeway over Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans in a whole new light discovering that it holds the world record for the longest continuous span over water, so much so that you cannot see one end from the other. I also learned a whole set of rules about the spirit world and ghostly constraints, although these paranormal rules may not be as factual as the other geographic knowledge I gained.

The characters are delightful. Jacob prefers to be called corporeally challenged rather than a ghost. He is wont to shoot devilish grins to punctuate his snarky remarks. Cassidy clings to a vintage camera and it is a vehicle for her to see different perspective into the world beyond the "Veil", the in-between land of spirits.

The action is good, and the is plot fun, as well as scary at times. There are also many Harry Potter references throughout that I think readers will find enjoyable and descriptive in way of explanations and elaborations. I am definitely going to see that this trilogy makes its way into the hands of each of my granddaughters. I would also venture that their younger siblings would like them also. Here are some teacher and reader evaluations for Books 1, 2 and 3:

Even though as young adult books they lack the sophistication of adult reading matter, I think they are great for their designated audience. I rate them 5 stars. They were a pager turner for me and I had a hard time setting them down.

★★★★★ Great! Read them!