A children's Horror novel by Gesa Schwartz, published in 2018 in Germany. Original title: "Emily Bones - Stadt der Geister".
Thirteen-year-old Emily wakes in a coffin with no remembrance of how she got there. The last thing she remembers is going to Halloween party in a goth costume. She escapes the coffin, only to be approached by a small gnome telling her she is dead and has become a ghost on the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. She is the quickly approached by other ghosts. She learns that she has been murdered - and not by a human, mind you, but by a powerful supernatural creature. This, however, means that if she can defeat said creature and take back her life force she may become alive again. Sounds like a plan except that nobody here has ever succeeded at this - and the creature that drained Emily's life is the most powerful evil in Paris. Yet Emily will stop at nothing to be reunited with her little sister Sophie . After all each other is all they have , since both their parent died a while ago...
The novel includes examples of:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Emily always liked scary stories, and was interested in vampires and ghosts. Now that she is a ghost, she is in a scary story herself and has to deal with both. Subverted in that in the end, she clearly prefers this to her previous existence.
- Emily never liked being forcibly put to sleep and always argued with her uncle to be allowed to stay awake longer. As a ghost, she is incapable of sleep.
- Big Bad: Asmaron
- Bittersweet Ending: Asmaron and his army are defeated, Dhragar suffers colossal setback. The ghosts are now hunting the dead, making it harder for him. The ghosts gained freedom, being no longer confined to cemetery. and humans gained a powerful Champion. However after all is said and done, Emily is still a ghost - an extremely powerful one, but a ghost nevertheless. She will never grow up, never have children. Sophie can see her, but it's unclear how much more they can interact. And Dhragar is still out there.
- Blessed with Suck: Ghost are more powerful and more resilient than people, but they are Invisible to Normals In the beginning of the story, they are also confined to cemetery.
- The same qualities that help Emily achieve her goal of gaining her life back also make it unbearable for her to use it as originally intended.
- Blithe Spirit: Emily causes other ghosts to regain their lost courage, reconnect with the Vampires and start fighting the dead once again.
- Buried Alive: What Emily believes when she wakes up. The reality is even worse.
- Character Development: Emily starts immature and easily afraid only concentrated on her personal task while ignoring others, but grows to be fearless and responsible in the end.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Emily leads the ghosts attack in the final battle.
- Child Soldier: Emily becomes this, fighting the dead at age of thirteen. And she voluntarily commits herself to this life in the end, despite having opportunity to leave.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Emily feels obliged to help Valentin after defeating him. This turns Valentin into her friend.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Having gained her life energy back, Emily attains great power. This power would be lost if she were to become a human again, so she decides to stay a ghost. So she has great power but no freedom to turn back
- Cool Big Sis: Emily is this for Sophie. That's why she desperately wants to return back to life.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Having gained her life energy back, Emily attains great power and turns the tide of the battle against the dead in the ghosts' favor in one move.
- Cute Ghost Girl: Emily and others.
- Deader than Dead: if a ghost is defeated, this happens. This happened to Emily's father.
- Defeat Means Friendship: This happens with Valentin near the end.
- Determinator: Emily will stop at nothing to get her life back.
- Double Aesop: At some point, Emily deliver a speech about how the other ghosts had abdicated their responsibility by no longer hunting the dead. Not abdicating responsibility is what contributes to Emily's decision to Stay a ghost and hunt the dead
- Downer Beginning: Emily wakes up in a coffin.
- Establishing Character Moment: when Emily starts arguing with other ghosts within minutes of her awakening.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Emily, Valentin and Balthazar.
- From Bad to Worse: Emily wakes in a coffin, escapes it with difficulty and only then learns she was actually murdered.
- Sophie looses her mother when she was still a toddler, her father when she was four and at ten, she looses her sister as well.
- Heel–Face Turn: Valentin.
- Heroic Sacrifice: the White Warrior who was Emily's father sacrificing himself (as a ghost, no less) to defeat Dhragar.
- In the end, Emily forsaking her chance at becoming alive again, so that she can fight the dead and protect the innocents. Effectively, she would have been alive had she not done this.
- His Story Repeats Itself: Emily sacrifices herself (in a sense), just like her father did.
- Hope Spot: happens multiple times:
- In the beginning, Emily manages to escape her coffin and it seem like she can escape the cemetery and go home. Then it is revealed she is ghost.
- During the first confrontation with Asmaron, Emily and Balthazar seemingly defeat him only for Dhragar to inhabit Asmaron's body and turn the tide, the timely arrival of vampires the only thing preventing them both being killed.
- In the end Emily, against all odds, has gained her life back. Now she can return to her old life, except doing so would deprive her of all new powers and friends that she gained, and she cannot bear it. So she stays a ghost.
- Impossible Task: Good news! You can become alive again. You just have to defeat the one who murdered you and get your life energy from him. Did we mention that 1) Ghost a re currently not allowed to leave the cemetery, and strictly not allowed to fight the dead and 2) the one you must defeat is about the most powerful dead in Paris?
- Kangaroo Court: after their first assault on Asmaron fails, Emily and Balthasar are put on trial where their guilt is already firmly believed. Emily doesn't get any opportunity to defend herself until Valentin forces everybody to listen
- Limited Wardrobe: Ghosts wear whatever they wore when they died. Emily is stuck in goth costume.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Balthazar is wounded by Asmaron and the wound is too much for him. Subverted when the Vampire Prince heals him using blood magic.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Emily's father sacrifices himself to stop Dhragar, but this makes Emily a target.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Multiple actions of villains contribute to the triumph of the good guys:
- Asmaron murders Emily, who becomes a ghost and starts hunting the dead.
- Dhragar shows Emily the battle with the White Warrior to break her spirit, only for Emily to understand you don't have to be very powerful to be a hero.
- Him interfering in the duel between Emily and Asmaron results in Emily becoming a Champion for the living in the end - and very powerful. Otherwise, Emily would have just become human again.
- The net result of Dhragar sending Asmaron to murder Emily is the wipeout of his army, loss of Asmaron, and Emily becoming a powerful champion against him and other ghost also starting fighting the dead.
- Oh, Crap!: happens at least once during any fight scene. During the final battle, it happens a lot, for both opponents.
- Our Vampires Are Different: they still feed on humans, but in exchange they protect them from the dead.
- Plucky Girl: Emily.
- Precision F-Strike: Emily knows where cursing has maximal effect.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Sophie loosing her mother, father and sister one after another seems an exaggeration, but Gesa Schwartz herself went through a similar experience, losing her father to cancer when she was 24, then loosing multiple family member in short succession.
- The Reveal: The White Warrior was Emily's father, which is why she was murdered.
- Sophie can see ghosts and therefore Emily.
- Rousing Speech: Emily delivers one about how the ghosts should not cover in fear before the dead, but fight them, to protect humans and gain freedom for themselves.
- Rule of Three: Emily and Asmaron meet three times. she dies the first time and he dies the third time.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: in the end, Emily can defeat whole armies of dead... but still hasn't learned how to change her clothes as a ghost.
- Sadistic Choice: in the end Emily has to choose between becoming a normal human again, losing all connection to other ghosts as well as all her powers thus beccoming a humen girl who cannot see her friends and cannot defend herself, let alone others from the dead, or staying a ghost, forever separating from human world. She chooses the latter so she can keep humans and other ghosts safe by hunting the dead.
- The Unreveal: we never learn how the dead are created.
- Also we don't learn if Emily can talk to Sophie in her ghost form
- Was Once a Man: Asmaron
- You Can't Go Home Again: As a ghost Emily cannot return to her old life.
