Literature / Rain of the Ghosts

An Urban Fantasy series by Greg Weisman that takes place in the fictional Caribbean island chain known as the Prospero Keys, known to locals as "The Ghost Keys".

The series stars a teenage girl named Rain Cacique who receives a family heirloom from her grandfather shortly before he dies that allows her to communicate with the spirits of the dead. As she investigates her new powers, Rain discovers that there are others in pursuit of the artifact that she has, and there is a mystery buried in the Ghost Keys that only she can solve.

The first book, Rain of the Ghosts was released in 2013.

The second installment, Spirits of Ash and Foam was released in 2014.

This series contains examples of:

• Adaptational Villainy: While Taino legend is kind of vague on Aycayia's morality, Guanayoa is painted in neutral-to-good terms.
• Affectionate Nickname: Sebastian calls Rain "Raindrop."
• Alpha Bitch: The second installment introduces Renée, one of Rain's classmates, who largely fits this role - though it is noted that, despite hanging with their grade's "popular crowd", she herself isn't so much popular as feared.
• Awesome Aussie: Callahan is a villainous example.
• Big Bad Ensemble: So far, there are two major villains: Silas Setebos, Callahan's employer who is hunting for the zemis, and Hura-hupia, a supernatural entity. Neither one has clear goals; Hura-hupia counts it as a win if Callahan/Setebos get the zemis, but there's no other indication that they're working together, so she may just want to keep Rain from getting them.
• Big Brother Bully: Charlie's older brother Hank is mostly a jerk to him any time they interact. The youngest Dauphin brother, Phil, on the other hand seems to get a bit of a pass on this, due to the vague high schooler honor code about being nice to the grammar school kids.
• Big Good: Maq, a mysterious supernatural entity who opposes Hura-hupia's efforts to acquire the nine zemis and offers cryptic help to Rain while spending his days masquerading as a homeless beach bum.
• Book Dumb: Rain is far from stupid, but she generally doesn't put a lot of effort into her schoolwork (when Miranda expresses confusion as to why she's taking Spanish when she's already fluent, Rain is confused why she wouldn't, as it gives her an "easy A" class). This shows when she struggles trying to research zemis and the Taíno because she doesn't really know how to research, just taking books out and flipping through at random hoping that something will jump out instead of any sort of organized system.
• Bratty Half-Pint: The three Kim children are a fairly realistic example - prone to whining, tantrums, and sibling fights that aggravate the older characters, but mostly doing so out of immaturity rather than malice.
• Character Narrator: Opie, Maq's best friend and just as mysterious in origin, who has the supernatural ability to know and observe everything going on in the present, right down to people's thoughts. And is a dog. Though he hints that he wasn't always.
• Chekhov's Gift: The snake zemi that Rain receives from her grandfather.
• The Chosen One: Rain Cacique, specifically because she's the convergence of two major bloodlines of Taino history, the Caciques and the Bohiques.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Maq, a lot of the time. Opie considers it a consequence of his future-seeing abilities - he's usually so focused on what's going to happen that his grip on the present is...intermittent. Hence, his friendship with Opie, who is very aware of the present.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Strongly implied to be the case with Maq. The mere threat of engaging in a direct fight with him has more than once been enough to deter Julia from directly attacking the heroes.
  Julia: If you're so confident, why not end this now?
  Maq: Well, none of this begins or ends with you, Hura-Hupia. Besides, confrontation isn't my style. So don't push me. None of us would wake up happy. Or even again.
• Deconfirmed Bachelor: 'Bastian. In his younger days he was well-known among his friends as a serial "ladies' man" who claimed he would never get tired of "playing the field". Then at some point he met Rain's grandmother, Rose, and went on to be her fully devoted husband for the rest of her life.
• Disappeared Dad: Charlie's father is not in the picture, and while the specifics haven't been shown yet, several hints - such as Charlie always wearing his father's overlarge wristwatch, and looking at it while thinking that he may somewhat understand what Rain is going through after Sebastian's death - imply that he is dead.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Renée's M.O. She is well-known - and feared - among her peers for her carefully-planned, over-the-top acts of revenge against anyone who crosses her, no matter how minor, or even intentional, the initial slight.
• Easily Forgiven: Downplayed - the only person who blamed Sebastian for the deaths of his crew was himself, everyone else presumably understanding that he couldn't have predicted the sudden freak hurricane that took down the Island Belle, even without knowing that it was magical and malicious in nature. Even the ghosts of his crew - including the three who Joe mentioned as not having been gung-ho about the post-war tour 'Bastian had set up - show no animosity or resentment toward him, merely being happy for him finally being able to help them complete their final mission and allow them to pass on.
• Emergency Multifaith Prayer: Isaac Naborías apparently likes to "cover all his bases" in regards to religion; in the wake of his almost being killed by the Hupia, he spends some time praying at both the local church and synagogue.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Aycayia has no illusions on what her demonic Child by Rape, Jurupari (aka the Hupia), is or the evil he's committed, but she still cares for him as his mother - and in the end chooses to take responsibility for ending his threat specifically because she is the only one who does.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Not necessarily evil per se, but when Renée learns that Miranda, her latest target, is the daughter of the man who employs a good portion of the Keys' adults, including Renée's mother, she decides to put her revenge plot on hold until she can come up with a strategy that won't potentially get her mother fired.
• Everyone Can See It: Pretty much the only person still largely oblivious to Charlie's obvious crush on Rain is Rain herself.
• Evil Brit: Silas Setebos, if his accent is any indication.
• Family Theme Naming: The Kim kids, Wendy, John, and Michael. Lampshaded by Charlie and Miranda, who amuse themselves theorizing the potential thought processes the kids' parents might have gone through.
• Henpecked Husband: Bernie Cohen. Most of his appearances involve his wife Maude badgering him to perform a task he was already in the process of performing, causing him to bungle his attempts to do so.
• Heritage Disconnect: Rain knows that she's Taíno, but doesn't really have much of a sense of what that means. As she delves more into the mystery of the zemis and the Ghost Keys, aside from the magical elements, she finds herself learning more about her heritage and fostering a stronger connection to her people's history and culture.
  • Sebastian also knows very little about their Taíno background (despite his abuela's attempts to teach him), due largely to the U.S. government's policy of "Americanizing" Native citizens when he was growing up.
    Sebastian: In those days, the schools here didn't teach our culture. Heck, they discouraged it. Told us we should be Americans. And the mythology of America was George Washington and the cherry tree.
• I Have Many Names: The supernatural entity that menaced Rain in the first book was originally a witch named Guanayoa. Since then, she's been referred to as First Witch, Hura-Hupia, and Hurricane Julia.
  • Close to the end of the second book, it's heavily implied that Maq used to be known as First Bat.
• I See Dead People: Rain has the ability to see ghosts.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Sebastian gives Rain the Searcher/Healer zemi the night before he dies of natural causes. Indeed, it's hinted, in the way that he seems suddenly more his age just after he gives it to Rain, that giving it up might have contributed to his death.
• Insult Backfire: When chastising Julia about her recent repeat attempt at taking down the Island Belle, Maq asks her if she knows the definition of "crazy", to which Julia immediately shoots back "You?" Maq isn't at all insulted and just chuckles agreeably before moving on with his point.
• Intergenerational Friendship: In Spirits, Rain forms a bond with the elderly Isaac Naborías, one of the few Taíno people on the Ghosts who remembers any of the old stories and cultural practices.
• Internal Reveal: Miranda is brought into the loop on Rain's quest at the end of the second book.
• Jumped at the Call: Rain is excited with her new quest, especially since she's been longing for an escape from the monotony of day to day life in the Ghost Keys.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Played for Drama - Sebastian recounted the events of the final mission of the Island Belle exactly once after the fact, to Joe, and told him to never ask him about it again; for the rest of his life he never talked about it, or his time in the war, with anyone, not even his family. As Joe put it, "as far as he was concerned, life began in 1946."
• Let's Get Dangerous!: According to Old Joe, Sebastian was like this during the war.
  Joe: When it mattered, your grandpa was rock solid. Serious. No foolin' around. But when it didn't matter, when nothing was at stake, he liked to have a good time.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: Joe caught pneumonia in the middle of the Island Belle crew's post-war tour, and had to sit the rest of it out while he recovered. As such, he escaped the fate of the rest of his crewmates.
• Loophole Abuse: The specifics are as yet unknown, but Maq and Opie's conflict with Hura-Hupia has rules that must be observed, including that the two may not intervene directly with the search for the zemis. They get around this by acting in ways that nudge things in the direction they want without making the other players aware of their significance. When Hura-Hupia accuses Maq of cheating when he and Opie saved Sebastian after she brought down his plane, Maq points out that Bastian had made it to the surface on his own efforts, and was unconscious when they picked him up and brought him to safety and thus never knew of their involvement. He sums up his use of this trope - in a way even Opie finds dubious - as "I may cheat, but I cheat fairly."
  • Likewise, in Spirits of Ash and Foam he cannot directly tell Rain that the dreams she has been having are sent by Hura-Hupia and deliberately misleading, but he can send her a dream of his own that skews a bit closer to the truth and directly contradicts the earlier ones, cluing her in that she shouldn't necessarily trust them.
• Love Triangle: Miranda has a crush on Charlie, Charlie has a crush on Rain (while being at least a little attracted to Miranda), and Rain is oblivious.
• Ma'am Shock: A minor one in the second book.
  "You're Miranda Guerrero?"
  "Yes, ma'am."
  Claire Beachum winced; she was only twenty-eight and didn't particularly like being ma'amed. "Mrs. Beachum will be fine."
• Memento MacGuffin: Rain's zemi is this.
• Mood Whiplash: In the second book, Rain, Charlie, Miranda, and the Kim kids observe a manatee shed its skin and become an amazingly beautiful woman, who lets them watch her for a moment before diving out of sight. The three teens are awestruck at the strange and beautiful thing they just witnessed. Six-year-old John Kim, however, knows the important takeaway from the experience.
  John: I saw her butt.
• Muggle Best Friend: Charlie Dauphin and Miranda Guerrero.
• My Greatest Failure: Despite no one else blaming him, Sebastian never forgave himself for the final flight of the Island Belle that ended in the deaths of his entire crew save for Joe.
• A Mythology Is True: As far as we've seen, Taino/Caribbean legends are the only ones true in this setting.
• "Not So Different" Remark: As Opie wryly notes during their brief interaction, Rain and Charlie have more in common with Bernie and Maude Cohen than any of the four realize.
• Older Than They Look: Played with. Rain's grandfather was an old man when he died, but as a ghost his appearance reverses to that of his younger self.
• Only in It for the Money: Callahan is being paid handsomely by Mr. Setebos to find and retrieve the nine zemis. As long as he receives his payment in full, he couldn't care less what his employer wants with them. Once, when Setebos almost fumbles the fake bracelet into the water when Callahan tosses it to him, he even briefly hopes that he'll drop it just so he could charge more to retrieve it all over again.
• Our Vampires Are Different: The Hupia, a being composed of a swarm of mosquitoes, who kills its victims by engulfing them and draining them of blood through thousands of tiny bites.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Or grandparental in this case - Rain tends to put on her "icky-face" whenever anyone talks about 'Bastian's youthful "ladies' man" days, or her mother's friends having had crushes on him.
• Posthumous Character: Rain's grandfather Sebastian Bohique dies at the beginning of the first book, but since this is a series where the main character can talk to ghosts, he sticks around long afterwards.
• Retirony: After V-E Day in 1945, the crew of the Island Belle had completed their tour of duty and were eager to return to their homes, but Sebastian insisted on one last mission to give them a little fanfare before they all went their separate ways. Mid-flight to the Ghosts - the final stop on this post-war tour - the Belle was downed by Hurricane Julia and all hands lost save for 'Bastian.
• Shout-Out: The three kids in the second book are named Wendy, John and Michael. It gets Lampshaded and Discussed.
  • A minor one toward Twilight:
  Miranda: I bet a firefly vampire's pretty. Bet it sparkles.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: It's a Greg Weisman work, what did you expect? In this case, The Tempest references are front and center, with the main setting being the Prospero Keys (which includes Sycorax Island), as well as the characters of Miranda, Ariel (who, just like her theater counterpart, is a servant of Miranda's father), Alonso, Iris and (Silas) Setebos. Callahan is also likely a subtle reference to Caliban.
  • There's also reference to a street named "Goodfellow Lane." Probably not a coincidence, since Weisman has referenced A Midsummer Night's Dream in two different TV series.
• Spirit Advisor: Sebastian is an interesting case in that despite dying of old age, as a ghost his appearance reverts to his late twenties.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Miranda was born on the Ghost Keys, but has spent most of her early childhood at a boarding school in Spain. While she has enough lingering memories of her birthplace to find the hidden No-Tourist Zone, she finds herself struggling to fit in with the island culture where most everybody knows everybody. Rain and Charlie initially assume her to be a tourist due to her unfamiliarity, her expensive clothes and jewelry, and that she instinctively calls the islands by their official name instead of the local colloquialism.
• Terms of Endangerment: Renée addresses those she has marked for revenge as "Sugar." Those familiar with her are terrified of finding they have been placed on her "Sugar List."
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Rain and Miranda, respectively.
• Two Halves Make a Plot: The second zemi is in two pieces and needs to be reassembled in order to defeat the Monster of the Week.
• Urban Fantasy: Clearly set in modern times while also featuring elements of Caribbean myths and legends.
• Weather Manipulation: "Julia" turns into storms to interfere with Rain's quest.
• Yuppie Couple: A Greg Weisman staple, here represented by Bernie and Maude Cohen, a tourist couple in their fifties who are occasionally seen bumbling around San Prospero.