Beyond the “Other Side”: Exploring Disability Using Ghosts, a guest post by Chloe Spencer

Fantasy is a genre that challenges our existing realities through the presence of magic and mythical creatures. Although there are tons of fantasy books with disability representation—seriously, there are a lot—there are still readers who think disability doesn’t belong in fantasy. Fire-breathing dragons? Totally fine. Magic that can alter timelines? Sure thing! A person in a wheelchair? That’s pushing the envelope, partner! And don’t even get me started on all the toxic tropes that worm their way into the genre.

Fantasy is an excellent medium to examine the complexities and diversity of disability. Fantasy creatures can also be used to illustrate certain kinds of disabilities or symptoms, which is something that I do within my own work as a disabled author with PTSD. In my first YA book, Monstersona, I explored how unresolved trauma impacted a teenage girl’s ability to control her powers, and how when she was unable to keep her symptoms in check, she morphed into a giant monster. With that character, I reflected on my own experiences struggling to contain my emotions during flashbacks or other stressful life events, and how anger became an emotion I got in touch with too quickly, and at times painfully. My upcoming paranormal mystery/romantasy release, Haunting Melody, is a little different in that it focuses less on the onset, and more about the reality of adjusting to life after PTSD develops.

The book centers on the titular character, Melody, a disgraced teenage ghost hunter who is diagnosed with PTSD shortly after a traumatic incident. When her family struggles to keep their ghost hunting business afloat, they end up moving to the island town of Murkmore in order to capture the spirits responsible for a series of grisly deaths. But Melody isn’t the only disabled character in the story: Cyrus, the butch lesbian ghost that accompanies her, is disabled as well. Suffering from amnesia, she’s unable to remember how she died, or how she got into the abandoned movie theater where Melody finds her. She experiences brain fog, and struggles to complete certain tasks. On top of that, she has no idea how to use her powers. She can’t phase through walls, and she doesn’t know how to move objects through telekinesis, something that most ghosts can do. Throughout the story, Cyrus and Melody work together to develop coping mechanisms while also trying to solve this sinister mystery before more people are hurt.

As a kid, I loved ghost stories. I remember coming home from the library and sprinting upstairs to dive into Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood, squirming in my seat during the final showdown in Eddie Murphy’s The Haunted Mansion, and plopping down on the couch to watch Casper Meets Wendy on Disney Channel every fall. But one thing that really frustrated me was the idea that ghostiness was something that had to be “cured.” Unless you were Casper, ghost characters were often pressured to cross over to the “other side”—ie, pass on to a loosely constructed version of the afterlife, or in some circumstances, cease existence altogether. Ghosts are told to resolve their “unfinished business” in order to cross over. Even if the ghosts are not causing harm or terrorizing others, many ghost stories perpetuate the idea that ghosts are not allowed to exist with the rest of society, and somehow, they are something to be feared.

To me, this was disturbing. Not only because of the uncertainty that came with the afterlife (unless, of course, you solidly have a belief in one), but because the non-malevolent spirits were, at best, people who lost the ability to do certain things or needed accommodations. In some stories, ghosts had difficulty maintaining their existence in one dimension, or would unwittingly set off nearby electronic devices, or break an object if they happened to pass through it. Sometimes they struggled to communicate in the same ways they had before their death. Many suffered from memory loss issues. How they navigated life had definitely changed, but it didn’t necessarily mean that they were “suffering” and therefore, needed to move onto a plane of existence that could better accommodate them. But ghosts aren’t always “suffering,” and the idea that they’re to be feared and disposed of is something that’s grounded in Western ideology, and not shared by a lot of cultures. Thinking about ghosts as disabled people, and how they weren’t allowed to continue existing in many stories, was unsettling to me. Were these ghost stories’ insistence on the cross over less about resolving the spirits’ trauma, or were they more about the living’s refusal to coexist with them?

Connecting these ideas about ghosts to how disabled people still struggle to navigate the world today, mostly by people and establishments denying them accommodations, frustrated me greatly. So when I sat down to write Haunting Melody, I wanted to make it clear that Cyrus’ ghost-state is only an element of her identity, and doesn’t comprise the entirety of who she is. Furthermore, although it makes her life difficult in some ways, it’s not something to be cured, and she doesn’t need to cross into the Great Beyond. Just as Melody employs coping mechanisms to adjust to life with her disability, Cyrus learns skills that empower her to embrace hers.

Minnesota native Chloe Spencer (she/her) is an award winning writer, indie gamedev, and filmmaker. She is the author of multiple sapphic horror novellas, novels, and short stories. In her spare time she enjoys playing video games, trying her best at Pilates, and cuddling with her cats. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Film and Television from SCAD Atlanta. 

• Main website: www.chloespenceronline.com 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyitschloespencer/?hl=en
• Amazon link for Haunting Melody ebook: https://a.co/d/dGPNixZ
• Publisher website which includes other links to buy Haunting Melody: https://www.tinyghostpress.com/haunting-melody 

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