The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy

The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy (2025) Roan Parrish

Edgar Lovejoy sees ghosts.

This isn’t a gift to him, it’s a nightmare, and one he tries very hard to avoid and flees whenever he can. But seeing ghosts is in his family, and there’s nothing he can do about it…is there?

Jamie Wendon-Dale loves their job helping to build haunted houses. They don’t love how their family constantly ignores their needs and misgenders them, but they’ve learned to deal with it. Except now their sister Emma is getting married, and their mother keeps insisting Jamie be part of the wedding planning–despite having been told it’s the busiest time of the year for them.

Jamie’s mother is a piece of work.

It was like this every time: an internal fight between the part of Jamie that cared about their family and wanted to be loved by them and the part that screamed to let their true feelings out, even if that meant alienating their mother and, by extension, their father, who would never stick up for Jamie if it meant disagreeing with his wife.

Edgar’s family is better–at least his sister Allie is. But she’s having a baby so he has to cut back on how much he leans on her. So after his friends finally (finally) convince him to go out with them to a burlesque show, he is instantly smitten with one of the performers–and Jamie likes him too.

Jamie narrowed their eyes. Edgar was clearly lying, and Jamie loathed lying. But he was lying so badly. Incompetently, really. Was that better or worse?

But Edgar’s ghost have chased him away from everything, and he’s afraid they’ll keep this from his as well.

I really liked Allie. And Cameron. And even Poe–I mean, who would be messed up if their parents named them and their siblings Edgar, Allan, and Poe?

The location–New Orleans–was interesting. It’s somewhere I’d like to visit, except that I absolutely hate crowds, so I probably won’t get it.

But the story itself just never gelled for me. Partially because I absolutely hate being scared and can’t stand haunted houses, so the appeal of making them is lost on me. I can get the art and the work, but… really not for me, and arranging a ghost tour for a first date just seemed awful. Like, not something to spring on someone unexpectedly.

Jamie’s issues with their family were hard, and although they and their sister had somewhat patched things up, it was still a lot. And Emma’s impending marriage just seemed like it was going to go badly.

So I read it, but it took me awhile.

Characters: Edgar Lovejoy, Allie Lovejoy, Poe Lovejoy, Antoine Valliere, Cameron Valliere, Jamie Wendon-Dale, Emma Wendon-Dale, Blythe Wendon, Hank Dale, Greta Russakoff, Helen Vang, Veronica Deslonde, Carys, Isak, Amelia, Mr. Carl Bainbridge, Germaine, Muriel, Aunt Alaitheia, Max, Dave, Truman, Ash

Cover art by Jillian Goeler

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Rating: 7/10

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