Guest post written by The Forsaken and the Fated author Camilla Raines
Camilla Raines is the author of The Hollow and the Haunted. She was born and raised in a small town in northern Washington State with lots of evergreen trees, seaside fog, and rainy days. Her writing career began in elementary school, where she spent years scribbling down stories for friends that were usually just knock-offs of whatever book she was devouring at the time. As a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and someone who openly struggles with chronic anxiety and depression, the most important things to her as a writer are representation, diversity, identity, and acceptance. Find her online @camillaraines.
About The Forsaken and the Fated: In this thrilling sequel to The Hollow and the Haunted, the web of dark magic around two rival families becomes ever more difficult to untangle. Time is running out, and the dead are hungry… Out October 21st 2025.
Can you remember the very first time you heard a ghost story?
I certainly can’t. Growing up, ghost stories were always present, making it impossible to pinpoint my first. They were whispered around crackling campfires, shared during the witching hour at sleepovers, in Goosebumps and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark checked out from the public library. I can still vividly remember third grade, when my friends and I would go into the school bathroom, turn off the lights, and dare each other to summon Bloody Mary in the mirror. The time I had a birthday party where everyone slept over in tents in the backyard, and we stayed up all night passing around a flashlight and telling stories about spirits in the woods. The spooky dilapidated house on the other side of my elementary school’s chain link fence that was rumored to be haunted and kids dared each other to get close to during recess.
Even now, as an adult, almost every person I know has a ghost story. A visit in a dream from a deceased loved one. An ominous shadow crossing a dark room. A vaguely familiar figure lurking just out of sight. A closed door creaking open on its own. Skeptics and believers alike, there’s always at least one strange occurrence, one unexplainable happening they can’t quite shake, that makes for a chilling tale to share over coffee. Paranormal experiences are a universal fascination, a topic for movies and books that never seem to wane in popularity, but why?
Aside from the obvious—ghost stories are a classic way to experience the thrill of being scared without any real threat of danger—–many people argue that it’s because death is the great mystery for all of us. And what are ghosts but a peek behind the curtain? Proof that something exists beyond this life?
Personally, I think one of the reasons ghost stories are so endlessly popular is because of the smaller, more satisfying mystery they present. One with answers. Why this person or this place? What is the ghost’s history that causes them to stay? And most importantly, what do they need to finally move on? There’s satisfaction when the mystery is solved, when the emotional closure is found, or the villainous individual being haunted is punished. It reinforces important moral ideals: treat people well so they don’t come back and haunt you; or open your heart and potentially experience a sign from a deceased loved one. There’s safety and comfort in the familiarity of good ghost stories, the ones that carry through generations. At their core, those tales are rooted either in a love that defies death, or in a violence that prevents peace until the wicked are punished.
Those tales force us to confront some of the most difficult parts of being human, things that can be hard to give a voice to: grief, loss, shame, and regret. The things that haunt us. You can’t help but wonder about the words you never got the chance to say to someone before they passed, or the hurtful ones you can never take back. What you would do if given the chance to speak with a deceased loved one just one more time? What might they say to you? You might find yourself hoping for a visit from the beyond, or dreading it. Frightened or delighted at the opportunity for a second chance, for unfinished business to be resolved.
The one thing you can’t help but wonder when hearing a ghost story is: what if? What if death isn’t the end? What if spirits linger through love or hatred? What if your regrets and mistakes, or love and yearning, could manifest in a haunting?
The answers to these questions always reveal more about ourselves than any ghost.
That’s the true beauty of ghost stories, and the reason they will never die—they can be interpreted in whatever way is meaningful to the listener. As death not being the end, or as a way to hold onto your dead, or the comfort of believing a loved one continues to watch over you. It can be a reminder to cherish our time alive, or to respect our fellow humans. A way to reach back through time or honor ancestors. A lesson to be learned, a warning, an emotional catharsis, a spot of hope, the warmth of undying love.
Ghost stories tell us that when the dead linger in this world, they can carry whatever message you choose.
