A (Dead) Thing Like Me

A teenage ghost in love with life becomes bound to the house of the grieving artist who summoned her via Ouija board in this darkly funny YA paranormal.

 

One hot dog with banana peppers. That’s all Hot Dog wants. An invisible teenage ghost, she haunts a food cart outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Until one night, she’s accidentally summoned via Ouija board to a house party in Florida … where finally finally finally, people can see her.

 

All the party guests scatter, except for Logan: the cool artist girl who doesn’t just see Hot Dog, she actually wants to talk to her. Logan, who isn’t scared of Hot Dog’s stitched mouth or chattering dress. Logan, who’s grieving her own dead BFF—and called Hot Dog by mistake.

 

Hot Dog wants to prove it’s not a mistake.

 

She can be Logan’s new best friend. She can go to Logan’s Halloween party. She can eat snacks, have sleepovers, and hang out. She can definitely smile without scaring people. Exactly like a real, human girl.

 

There’s one problem: Hog Dog’s not a real, living human girl, and something in Logan’s sprawling house knows it. It scratches like rats in the walls. It opens a secret door in Logan’s attic. It wants to drag Hot Dog into the nothingness where dead things go. And unless Hot Dog can confront the dark truth of how she died, it will unmake Logan too.

 

Gorgeously strange and stunningly written, this YA paranormal masterfully melds camp and creep into a beyond-the-grave coming-of-age.

Additional information

Genre

Fantasy, Horror, Humor/Satire, LGBTQ+, Speculative

Age

Young Adult

Publisher

Independent

Imprint

Holiday House / Peachtree

Language(s)

English

Format(s)

Audiobook, eBook, Hardcover

Author

E.G. Young

Release Date

18 August 2026

Release Month

August Releases

Author Identity

Chronic Illness, Disabled, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Neurodivergent

Content Rep

LGBTQIA+

About the Author

E.G. Young is an author of young adult speculative fiction. Friends say her books are “weird-but-tender,” which is also true of her. She writes 90 percent of her drafts using voice-to-text dictation (shoutout to fellow hypermobile humans). E.G. lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida, where you’ll find her enjoying nature, binging Netflix, or playing with her tabby cat and barkless basenji dog.

 

She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from The Vermont College of Fine Arts and is represented by Linda Camacho at Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency. She formerly had a food column in The Tampa Bay Times chronicling her adventures as a novice cook. Check out her website at egyoungbooks.com.

 

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