Tunnel of Bones

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and child death.

The Cassidy Blake series by Victoria Schwab is a trilogy consisting of City of Ghosts (2018), Tunnel of Bones (2019), and Bridge of Souls (2022). The series is named for its protagonist, a 12-year-old girl whose near-death experience left her with the uncanny ability to interact with ghosts in a dimension she calls the Veil. The premise of the series has Cassidy accompanying her parents on a tour of the world’s most haunted cities, where she and her best friend—a ghost named Jacob—face dangerous spirits that threaten the living.

City of Ghosts draws its title from a nickname for Edinburgh, Scotland, where the story takes place. Cassidy meets Lara Chowdhury there, a girl who has the same paranormal ability and more experience using it. Lara mentors Cassidy, teaching her to reap ghosts (i.e., sever their attachment to this world so that their spirits can move on). The novel’s main conflict pits Cassidy against the Red Raven, a ghost who haunts the city and steals its living children. In a secondary conflict, Cassidy begins to grapple with the nature of her friendship with Jacob.