Black Velvet

After a near death experience, troubled trans boy Aaron Phillips is haunted by the ghost of Elvis Presley. As if that wasn't enough, he soon discovers he can bring things back from the dead. 2005 casts a long shadow as Aaron navigates a barely breathing music career, a fraying romantic relationship, and fragile mental health seven years after his dad disappeared. Wracked with academic ennui, depression, and gender dysphoria, Aaron and the afterlife will have to get reacquainted before he can finally find solace. An exploration of love, loss, and queerness, Black Velvet balances the supernatural with the agonies and apathies of confronting adulthood in the Myspace age. For fans of The Lovely Bones, Cemetery Boys, Life is Strange, and Turtles All The Way Down. "The characters felt so real and fleshed out, even the side characters. I was laughing and crying at parts; this story will stay with me, and I will be re-reading it once a year" "Excruciating and joyous in all the extreme ways puberty is, I would recommend Black Velvet to anyone who's in any way queer, emo, alt or an outsider" "…moving and sincere…The ending was great… And I loved the characters a lot. They felt real and like I could have known them back then" "…the story is so immensely sincere and heartfelt, with all the characters feeling alive (including the dead one)"