Charleston Green: A Novel

Tipsy Collins can see ghosts, but most of the time, that’s just fine. Most of the time, they leave her alone, and she leaves them alone. When she moves into an old house with her three children and a looming divorce, however, things change. The dead in this house, Jane and Henry Mott aren’t content to keep to live and let live, so to speak. They’re glad to have someone who can see them after almost one hundred years of death, and they can’t quite bring themselves to keep out of Tipsy’s way. They also can’t quite leave behind their former animosity or the fact that, as far as anyone knows, Henry killed Jane, then himself.

Despite dealing with such heavy matters as decades’ old murder and failing marriages, Charleston Green is a delightfully cheerful novel, full of all the warmth of a South Carolina summer. Stephanie Alexander finds just the right balance between serious moments and the fun, relatable characters. I’ve always been a fan of fantasy invading what might ordinarily be a completely realistic novel, and Charleston Green is the perfect read for summer. It’s breezy without being vapid, spectral without being creepy, and full of all the right points for fans of fantasy and realism alike.