A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Do you believe in the existence of the afterlife? Where will you go when you die? Heaven or hell? What if you don’t end up in either place? What if you are stuck on Earth, a purgatory of such, where you must haunt people or places but can never touch or talk to anyone? An existence where you can love but no one can love you or even see you. This is Helen’s life. She died 130 years ago but is stuck between Heaven and Hell, right here on Earth, as a Light. She has had many hosts, the current Mr. Brown, whom she cares for deeply but can never touch or communicate with. She has come to accept her reality until one day a boy in Mr. Brown’s English class looks at her and actually sees her. That is because this boy is not your typical teenager. He is really a shell who has been inhabited by one of Helen’s kind, a ghost named James. James unlocked for Helen a world she never thought possible, a world where she might finally be able to touch and communicate with others, a world where she can love, a world that will unveil the answers to how and why she became Light and how she can finally be free.