Written by Sam Wilket
Annick Press
978-1-834021157
248 pp.
Ages 14-18
August 2026
This guest review was written by Laura Krause.
A Hauntingly Good Debut
This is a great horror story for young adults. It is a story in which a mother's grief allows literal ghosts to destroy the life of the family. Drawing upon her own heritage, debut author Sam Wilket, a second-generation Canadian of white British and Chinese descent, feeds her story with Chinese folklore and mythology, helping her to build the dread and danger at a near-perfect pace. But what really makes this novel shine is the more human story about grief, about how people move through it, and how it can slowly erode the foundation of a family, despite those who process that grief in a healthy way.
This mother’s grief is an apt metaphor for the very mundane and non-paranormal way that the agony of loss can consume people. There are many creepy and chilling scenes that build horror associated with grief. These scenes, all occurring as characters process grief, include people having out-of-body experiences; having no memory of their actions and losing spans of time; hallucinating; and erupting into violent outbursts. The paranormal is used as a powerful metaphor for universal emotions faced by many at some point in their lives.
Normally I get so frustrated with horror stories in which obviously supernatural and dangerous things occur. It is not uncommon to have characters who come up with ridiculous ways to rationalize what they experience, or who take far longer to reach their breaking point than feels realistic. But, in The Good Daughter's Ghost, I never once became frustrated at the characters' reactions to the increasingly scary circumstances because of the way Sam Wilket presented their emotional and life situations. The way they reacted made sense.
Apart from the subject of grief, the subplots focus on Rachel, our teen protagonist, and her relationship with her mom, as well as with her cultural identity. These story lines will be especially relevant to teens, the intended audience of The Good Daughter's Ghost, though the book can be appreciated by a far older audience too.
I would have appreciated more detail in several aspects of the story. First, I craved more from the epilogue, so that there would have been more story of the aftermath of a violent and horrifying climax. Rather than jumping to six months later, I would have liked to see the journey to how things became okay again. Also, I would have liked for Sam Wilket to expand on how a Canadian Caucasian knew enough about Chinese spiritual practices to perform the steps that were taken. Perhaps because of her own background, which she writes upon on her website, Sam Wilket has such knowledge, though it would be unfamiliar to many persons. Some additional discourse about the source of that info would be valuable.
This may be a YA horror novel, but even as a reader who is beyond that age group, I still thoroughly enjoyed The Good Daughter's Ghost, and look forward to future titles from Sam Wilket.
~ Laura Krause (or LauraK483 as she is known online) is an aspiring book editor with a background in live theatre. She obtained her BFA in Theatre Production and Design from York University, and a master’s degree in Stage and Event Management from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She is currently completing the Editorial Skills program at George Brown Polytechnic. When she isn't working or reading, she is likely streaming video games on her Twitch channel or planning her next TTRPG project.
