I loved the idea of this book and was drawn into parts of it. This does so well at exploring grief and friendship, but I feel as if the book was missing the depth I wanted. I did forget parts of it because I wasn’t fully hooked.

Thank you to @allenandunwin for making 'I'll Be Waiting for You' by Mariko Turk available as an ARC on @netgalley

It's been a year since Natalie's best friend, Imogen, suddenly died as the result of an undiagnosed heart condition. It's also been a year since she last visited The Harlow Hotel, a famously haunted hotel where she and Imogen would spend the beginning of their summers together. When Natalie gets an opportunity to film an audition tape for her favourite ghost hunting show for her senior project for school, she - a firm sceptic - will soon find herself questioning her belief about the afterlife, when a string of experiences suggest that her friend might be reaching out to her from beyond the grave.

I'm going to start this review with two mild complaints:

1. This is being pitched as an enemy-to-lovers story, and it's really not. There is a romance between Natalie and a boy from her school, Leander, but at no point are they enemies.

2. I don't think the romance was necessary at all. The plot wouldn't have needed to change at all if Natalie and Leander had just become friends, and I actually think the themes of the story could have been enhanced by this. But I realise I'm in the minority when it comes to not needing everything to be a romance.

These two points aside, I really enjoyed this book.

Although it's presented as a ghost story, this is definitely not horror. It's written by someone who knows the conventions of horror but is more of an exploration of grief and its effects on those who have been affected by death. So don't go into it expecting to be scared unless you want to be disappointed; but do be prepared to deal with some emotions, particularly if grief is something that you're not a stranger to. I definitely had some misty eyes, once or twice.

While I may not be excited about the romance between Natalie and Leander, I did enjoy their dynamic. Similarly, I enjoyed exploring the relationship between Imogen and Natalie, which we mostly learn about in flashbacks; and which rather sweetly looks at how we can be shaped into better people by those around us.

I'm out of characters, so to the point:

Rating: 4.5/5
Goodreads: 5/5

'I'll Be Waiting for You' will be available from April 30th 2024.