Colby Wilkens's IF I STOPPED HAUNTING YOU

Thanks to partners NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of Colby Wilkens’s If I Stopped Haunting You. 

If I Stopped Haunting You is an enemies-to-lovers romance that incorporates a consideration of publishing trends for indigenous horror with a super-spooky Scottish haunted house story and an open-door romance story with LGBTQ+ representation. Yes, it may be a lot. But it’s a lot of fun.

Penelope Skinner is one novel into her writing career when she makes a potentially career-ending move: during a conference panel about indigenous horror books, she launches her own hefty novel at the head of Neil Storm, an infinitely more successful author who Penelope considers to be a sellout because of the way he uses Native stereotypes in his most recent book.

The scandal chases Penelope into hiding until her friend Laszlo invites her to a writers’ retreat in an isolated Scottish castle. She’s eager to get a grasp again on her writing career . . . and then she discovers that Laszlo has also invited his friend—and her nemesis—Neil and her ex-girlfriend Daniela. Not awkward at all.

They make it to the castle, complete with a horrifically creepy introduction from the caretaker, before completely falling apart. And then a mix of (un)healthy competition, jealousy, and denied chemistry ensues, all while the four writers are trying to churn out new books and a ghost seeks out a new audience for her story.

Wilkens’s mix of romance and the paranormal here mostly worked for me, and I appreciated the sincere consideration of what the publishing industry is looking for in the works it promotes by indigenous authors. I did feel, at times, that the parallels between the romance and the paranormal were a little jarring, but overall, I found If I Stopped Haunting You to be a compelling debut romance with some thought-provoking questions at its heart.

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