
Member Reviews

Okay, so picture this: you’re twelve, just minding your business, and then whack, a coconut drops on your head, and the next thing you know you’re dead. But instead of floating off into the great beyond, you’re enrolled in Phantom Academy, a school for ghost kids who are trying to figure out the afterlife. Yup, welcome to middle school, but make it spectral!
Christine Virnig’s Phantom Academy is spooky-fun perfection! It’s got all the usual middle school chaos, awkward friendships, weird teachers, and mysterious hallways but now everyone’s transparent and floating. Our unlucky hero Finn is the new ghost on campus, and he quickly realizes that dying doesn't make growing up any easier. There are still cliques, cafeteria troubles, and yes, homework, rude, right? Even the afterlife has tests?!
But beneath the ghostly giggles is a clever and heartfelt mystery. Something strange is going on at Phantom Academy, and Finn and his new friends are determined to get to the bottom of it. The whole book has Graveyard Book meets Tim Burton vibes with just the right balance of laughs, chills, and warm fuzzies!
Finn is funny and endearing, and his fish-out-of-water energy makes the story fly, sometimes literally he’s a ghost, after all! The friendships feel real, the school is full of quirky charm, and there’s even a dash of existential afterlife crisis just the right amount for a 12-year-old navigating ghost puberty.
⚡️Thank you Toppling Stacks Tours and Christine Virnig for sharing this book with me!

This was pretty charming and lighthearted for a book about ghost children. I liked the concept of the Phantom Academy, but I wasn't a huge fan of the story itself. I bet it will be a hit with the target audience, though.

I loved it! This is a perfect middle-grade book: it has humor, emotional connections, mysteries, and well-rounded characters. There is an engaging mystery with no cookie-cutter bad guys, which I really liked. The book's universe (a boarding school for ghost kids who have recently died) is rich and three-dimensional, and seems like the sort of place that could be explored over multiple books.

This story was so charming and fun and dealt with a heavy topic in such a beautiful way! I loved Finn and going on this journey with him. I’m such a huge den of middle grade books and this didn’t disappoint!

I really enjoyed this book! The whole premise is built on children dying young, and that's a tricky place to start. I was curious whether Christine Virnig would handle that too flippantly or if it would fill the book with deep sadness, but Virnig walks that line absolutely beautifully. PHANTOM ACADEMY is an adventure--it's a group of kids joining up to navigate their new school and learn the rules and go on adventures. It's fun! But PHANTOM ACADEMY also handles death in a beautiful and deeply affecting way. From Finn's POV, he's desperate to get back to his parents and his little sister. I admit I shed a few tears when he realizes that he can't--and that staying away is the best way to honor and love them. This is a book for anyone, but I could see it being especially moving for a young reader struggling with loss and wondering why their loved one can't just return.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for this ARC!
Younger me would have loved this book. It's younger middle grade and while there are ghosts, I would say it's light on the spooky. Still,I think middle graders will love this book, because it has humor and a pretty good ghost school. I liked the characters for the age range of this book and think the plot was a good mystery adventure.

What a great book!! I love the mystery and the humor in this one, and the concept is definitely fun. It's not at all scary, so it's perfect for those kids who want something eerie and mysterious, but who do not want to be scared.

Another solid effort from Christine Virnig. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025. I'll say it mostly lived up to the hype. It'd be really hard to butcher a concept this fun. I would've preferred more attention on Finn coming to terms with being dead/a ghost instead of so much focus on a missing painting, but the ending offers potential for a sequel so I expect that to be addressed should there be a book two. And I really hope there is because there's a lot of depth to Finn's character and his relationships with the other ghosts (students and teachers) that has yet to be explored.
I could've done without the bathroom humor, though. Even for a MG book, there's far too much of it in my opinion.

Welcome to a laugh-out-loud afterlife where a boy goes to ghost school and learns that family and friends are at the heart of being human. Kids are going to absolutely adore Finn, empathize with his quest to get back to the people he loves, and be on the edge of their seats as he and the other students solve the mystery of what the Phantom Academy is up to and how his gift of speaking to characters in paintings fits into it all. As a grownup reader, I bawled at the end. Finn your mom would absolutely be so proud of you!! Hope this is the start of a new spooky series that follows Finn and his friends on more paranormal adventures!