Seeing Other People by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka Review

Two people haunted by their exes find that love isn’t dead in this heartfelt romance from the beloved authors of The Roughest Draft.
 

Morgan is being ghosted by her ex. No, really. It’s sad Zach died and became a ghost. But Morgan and Zach only ever went on the one date, and now she’s being haunted by him. Zach has no desire to spend eternity with Morgan, but he can’t recall his past and doesn’t know how to move on.
 

At a support group for humans and their haunters, Morgan and Zach run into Sawyer, whose fiancée-turned-ghost has started to fade. Unlike Morgan, Sawyer isn’t ready to part ways with his ghost. Although they face opposite issues, Morgan and Sawyer decide to work together to solve their problems.
 

As Morgan and Sawyer try to solve their paranormal conundrums together, they find something even more surprising—a tender, growing affection between them that threatens any unfinished business they’re seeking to close. The ghosts of their past might be there in spirit, but the connection between Morgan and Sawyer is as alive as anything they’ve ever felt.

Featuring a genius title that fits the story both literally and metaphorically, Seeing Other People by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka is a wholesome and cute contemporary romance novel with trace elements of magical realism and speculative fiction elements. While clearly intended to be an opposites-attract romance story haunted by the literal ghosts of their exes, Seeing Other People is also a heartwarming story about grief and unexpected friendships that’s simple, easy to read, and tackles an emotional premise without being depressing or difficult for sensitive readers to get through. Though this book didn’t have the strongest introspective and reflective writing chops I was hoping for, it’s still a cute book that has a lot of mass appeal, perfectly suited for light-hearted romance readers looking for something with a bit more weight than their usual.

“Maybe no one ever really leaves. They just…change. From souls to soil, shattered pieces to loving completion, dreams to dust to memory. They live on, the ghosts of past lives made new forever.”

As a reader that loves ghost stories, I was intrigued by Seeing Other People’s premise that’s genius on paper. Presented in a dual-perspective presentation, the book follows landscape and gardening enthusiast Morgan and the freelance artist Sawyer who are both haunted by their exes. For the last several months, Morgan has been haunted by a young man named Zach who she went on a mismatched failed date who acts like an unwanted and cheeky roommate causing mild havoc in her life. On the other hand, rather than being “haunted”, Sawyer has been desperately holding on to the memory and presence of his fiancé Kennedy who had passed away five years ago, living in a state of purgatory and grief. Throughout the book, one of the most effective and compelling elements of the book is the contrasts between Morgan and Sawyer’s relationships and interactions with their respective ghosts. Where one pair is essentially strangers turned awkwardly comedic acquaintances, the other is a somber and withdrawn duo.

Beyond providing ample opportunity for some early hilarious miscommunication-based jokes about their relationships with their ghostly counterparts, the different circumstances around their respective situations are a great idea that has so much narrative potential. While Sawyer knows the exact situation and story that led to Kennedy’s death and is stuck in the past of what could’ve been, Morgan doesn’t even know what Zach’s last name nor why she’s even being haunted by him. Described as a heartfelt contemporary romance novel, Seeing Other People’s story has surprisingly compelling supplemental storylines consisting of what Kennedy and Zach’s lasting unfinished businesses are as well as both Sawyer and Morgan confronting their personal demons and fears through each other’s different experiences. Though the romance isn’t poor by any means, I personally found myself engrossed more in the ghostly mysteries of unfinished business more than the inevitable romance between the two main characters.

Besides having interesting narrative material, it also helps that both ghosts are interesting characters themselves rather than simply playing supporting roles in the story. Alive characters Morgan and Sawyer are polar opposites across the board, Morgan being impulsively sociable, easy going, impulsive while Sawyer is calculated, serious, withdrawn and skeptical. Beyond baseline personality traits, the two also have distinctively opposite ideologies and weaknesses. Morgan is always on the move, reluctant to settle down, and fears commitment, failure, and hurting others around her. Sawyer is stuck living in the past, holding on to his memories and ghostly version of Kenndy, a shell of a person who fears change and letting go of Kennedy both as a ghost and as a major piece in his life. The two naturally (or rather unnaturally) fit together and complement each other in the areas each needs help in and the way they work together with each other’s ghosts is very sweet and heartwarming. Morgan’s desk job in a landscaping firm yearning for a hands-on gardening project perfectly fitting in with Sawyer’s dead front yard of doom is particularly cute and an effective element. Unexpectedly, Morgan’s ghost Zach is the true star of the story who simultaneously serves as comic relief, limited yet decent paranormal spooks, hype buddy plus wingman, and more. While Kennedy’s unfortunate death at a young age and Sawyer’s extended grief is inherently sad, the unraveling of who Zach is and what his life was like leading up his eventual end is far more emotional and much more effective given how underused and absent Kenndy is in the book and how much energy he adds to the story.

While the characters, story, newfound friendship and romance between Morgan and Sawyer are decent and have a lot of mass appeal given how palatable and sweet its presentation is, unfortunately I found the overall book to be a bit disappointing and underwhelming. While Seeing Other People has an outstanding premise, the overall execution of the story and the heavier reflective material felt quite surface level and simple. Given Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka’s past contemporary romance books that are quite casual in tone, I should have tempered my expectations as magical realism and speculative fiction are not their usual forte. While the exploration of Sawyer’s grief for Kennedy and Morgan’s aversion to settling down were decently reflected on, I personally wanted a lot more from the character development and introspection which were often slotted in as character development dumping chapters. There were a few nice quotes and lines on the topic of death and moving on, but I was hoping for either more relatable and emotional commentary, or more lyrical and metaphorical thoughts on loss and memories. The content included is serviceable enough for a casual read and perhaps I have been spoiled by other books that incorporated harder-hitting content into contemporary romance stories. Compared to some of my other favorites that tackle grief like Ashley Poston’s Seven Year Slip and Dead Romantics, Daria Lavelle’s Aftertaste, Emily Henry’s Beach Read, this book simply doesn’t have the ambition or writing chops to leave much of an impression but in terms of its dialogue as well as its internalized character feelings.

Additionally, while I found Morgan and Sawyer’s individual self-discovery journeys to be alright and their platonic chemistry as awkward strangers to friends good, I wasn’t as fond of their romantic chemistry and didn’t really buy into their romance. A contributing factor is the heavy-handed approach to Sawyer’s grief for Kennedy that feels repetitive, stressing the loss of their life plans and his love. While Morgan and Sawyer’s relationship initially grow slowly and carefully, the jump to an unexpected kiss, to feelings of love, to feelings of being inseparable felt jarring to me, as if I missed a few key scenes or steps somewhere along the way. Their attraction, third act breakup, and then reunion felt quite forced at fast-forward speed. To the book’s credit, it tries to juggle a lot of different narrative elements and it’s inevitable that some are going to pull the short stick given the book’s tidy and quick 352-page count for its big premise. However, the quick pacing doesn’t help the romance development and the expected big argument felt particularly juvenile to me, particularly from Sawyer’s perspective which suffers from his poorly supported and repetitive attachment to Kennedy’s memory. Fortunately, Zach’s presence helps make the third act more tolerable, but everything from that point forward feels rather rushed compared to the first half of the book. Sawyer’s ah-hah moment in particular left a lot to be desired for me and while the ideas and concepts behind Zach’s unfinished business were theoretically good, they kind of come out of nowhere and are fighting with Morgan and Sawyer’s romance for attention and book pages; a late semi-open door sex scene felt shoehorned in as an obligatory requirement for the genre when the ending likely could’ve been stronger without it. I almost would’ve preferred it if the book put more of its time and energy into Zach’s resolution which had the stronger material of the two or if it took half the number of pages spent on Morgan and Sawyer arguing in circles vs expanding on Zach’s final moments.

A great title and premise presented in a simple and sweet manner, Seeing Other People is a love story with ghosts perfectly suited for comfort and safe romance readers. Featuring great narrative ideas, storylines, and a decently crafted plot, this book should be a notable new contemporary romance book on paper. Unfortunately, despite having a lot of heart and good intentions, the writing, introspection, character development, detailing, and overall execution is just okay at best, and it simply lacked the nuance, complexity, and emotional depth I was looking for with its premise and story. The ghosts’ hauntings and unfinished business were my favorite part of the book, but Kennedy felt severely underused (a chapter where she appears to Morgan is easily one of the best scenes in the book) and despite being a lovable and comedic himbo, Zach is not enough to carry the book on his own. As far as books about ghosts or individuals grieving the lost of loves ones, there’s far stronger and more memorable books out there. Seeing Other People is ultimately an okay book and one I can see a lot of casual readers enjoying, but not one I can see myself revisiting or remembering, if not for the missed opportunity to do so much more with its story.