by Mae Coyiuto (Author)
A teen girl comes face to face with her dad's spirit when she ignores a strict Filipino superstition in this contemporary young adult novel that tackles grief, family tension, and first love.
"I laughed and I cried and I felt like I was inside of Nika's family. Mae Coyiuto has given us a moving--and hilarious--novel about grief and love."--Nina LaCour, Michael L. Printz Award winning author of We Are Okay and Watch Over Me
It's been five years since Nika's beloved father passed away, but her family has never fully grieved. They don't speak of him much at all, except on the anniversary of his death.
Whenever they visit her father's grave, Nika's superstitious mother still insists on practicing pagpag, a Filipino belief that you can never go directly home after attending a funeral--or risk the spirit of the departed following you back home.
But when her mom's new fiancé suddenly shows up at the cemetery for this year's memorial for her dad, she furiously walks out, breaking the pagpag superstition. The next day, she finds herself face-to-face with the ghost of her dead father. . . and Nika's the only one who can see him.
As she spends time reconnecting with her dad's ghost, Nika learns about her parents' past and how they started dating back in high school. And when she starts to fall for her neighbor Seph and accidentally re-creates memories of her parents' love story with him, her dad's spirit slowly becomes more solid and alive. Fearing that she'll lose her dad again, Nika makes it her mission to find a way to make her dad stay permanently, no matter what the cost.
With a perfect blend of humor and heart, Mae Coyiuto artfully brings past to present in a way that explores grief head-on.
Author Biography
Mae Coyiuto is a Chinese Filipino writer, born and raised in the Philippines. Mae earned her BA in Psychology from Pomona College and her Master's Degree in Writing for Young Adults/Children from The New School. If she's not writing, she's usually fangirling over Beyoncé, tennis, Gilmore Girls, or all of the above. She currently lives in Manila.
Number of Pages: 320
Dimensions: 1.14 x 8.41 x 5.7 IN
Publication Date: February 17, 2026
