"Fun Home meets Ghost in this queer love story about Ezra, the trans son of Jewish funeral directors, who can see ghosts, and the handsome widow he is trying not to fall in love with"
God I love reading quirky queer high-concept books! Shelly Jay Shore’s novel is a lovely mix of supernatural and slice of life, bringing together the melodramatic and the relatable: from ghosts to gossipy group chats, the novel keeps surprising you with revelations of family secrets, births, deaths, accidents and tragedies – even Ezra says his life is ‘like a soap opera’. But at its heart, the book is interested in chronicling the movements of relationships – particularly family dynamics, and a very sweet romantic story-line which included beautifully tender scenes between the two of them which have lingered with me even after I finished the book. I really want angelic Jonathan to fall in love with me!
It’s always a wonderful experience to read a trans main character, and Ezra is both recognisable and unique in his queerness, and the way the book explores his relationship to his family, body, and intimacy.
I kept looking forward to reading this and am excited to read whatever Shelly Jay Shore writes next.
Rule #1: They can't speak. | Rule #2: They can't move. | Rule #3: They can't hurt you.
Ezra Friedman can see ghosts - which made growing up in a funeral home complicated, especially with his grandfather's ghost giving disapproving looks at every choice he makes from his taste in boyfriends to his HRT-induced second puberty. It's no wonder that since moving out, he's stayed as far away from the family business as possible.
But when dream job disappears and his mother uses Passover seder to tell everyone she's running away with the rabbi's wife, Ezra finds himself back in the thick of it at the funeral home.
Having agreed to help out, Ezra must face not only his loved ones, but also his crush on Jonathan - the handsome funeral home volunteer who also happens to be his new neighbour - and Johnathan's ghostly relative, who is breaking every spectral rule Ezra knows.
As he tries to keep his family together and his heart from getting broken, Ezra will soon realise there's more than one way to be haunted...
'Part ghost story, part Jewish family epic, and part romance, RULES FOR GHOSTING is a meditation on life, death, and healing that is at turns bitingly funny and deeply moving' - Anita Kelly
