A fun sweet read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my ARC.

Thank you NetGalley & Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review can also be found on Goodreads.

Rule #1: they can't speak
Rule #2: they can't move
Rule #3: they can't hurt you

As if Ezra's life wasn't complicated enough being a secret psychic who sees dead people, his entire world comes crashing down at his family's Seder. Ezra's life is changing faster than he can comprehend, and in many ways, he is left to pick up the pieces of the drama his family has left behind. While speaking with the dead, focusing on saving his family's funeral home business, and falling for someone he least expected, Ezra feels the weight of it all.

The premise of this book was very interesting, but I found it was a little flat for me. When reading an excerpt, it sounded like this was geared mostly towards Ezra encountering the dead at the funeral home he was trying to save. However, the book was most about the complex family drama happening in his life.

I felt the world building and exposition was a little slow. It took me a good amount of time to buy into the story past the first exciting ghost encounter. It became clear that this was less focused on the paranormal, and it was more focused on identity and family. And while those were lovely themes well done in this novel, it was not what I expected.

Ezra is a trans male in a Jewish family. This adds an extra layer to everything in the novel, and I found it was very well written. Ezra's journey is extremely important in this novel, and I think it will be a powerful and poignant story for Shore's target audience.

I was so shocked to learn that this was a debut!! It was so well written and thought out. The MC was quite lovable, even though at times he could be so frustrating. The romance took a little while to be the main focus, but it was such a mature connection. Obviously, death plays a huge roll in this book, and the way it’s written about is so beautiful!

This is my favorite read of 2024 so far! I haven't read anything quite like it in the best way possible. Oftentimes, when stories have a lot going on with many themes, stories, characters, identities, etc being represented, they're too muddled and not enjoyable. Sometimes I have trouble relating to characters who are nothing like me because the way they are written. And, sometimes debut novels.... need more editing. None of that is true here.

These characters and their experiences are familiar. Their emotions are real and relatable. The story is charming but intense at times.

I can see how some may say there aren't enough ghosts or they were expecting a different storyline with more ghostly encounters, but I loved the wordplay with the book title and I think the book description does a good job of explaining the premise.

Finally, this book is a great read for anytime of year, not just during the "spooky season" (in the United States, or elsewhere). The story takes place in the spring.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This was such a cute and perfect queer read. I love how we dive into the family of not just their dynamics but their religion and ethnicity as a whole. I heavily enjoyed the details of the funeral home and the ceremonies performed. It gave me a whole new appreciation for jewish funeral homes. The care the author took in making Ezra was just chef's kiss. Though I do wish we saw more of Ollie being Ace. The queer rep was beautiful and I fell so in love with the two main characters, Jonathan and Ezra. The book had me captivated from start to finish. 100% recommend and an automatic buy for me.

Shore has crafted a deeply moving story of guilt, grief, ritual, and transformation, treating characters with tenderness and love that readers won’t soon forget. This is a book deeply enmeshed in Judaism and queerness, one accessible to all readers but sure to be a uniquely cathartic experience for those who will experience it as a kind of coming home.

This was so cute, and a perfect fall read!

This is a paranormal queer fiction book, that’s more focused on family relations/queer dynamics/ghosts, with romance coming secondary.

I loved diving into the family and the family business, and seeing everything play out. This book paints such a vivid picture, and you can’t help but getting sucked in.

Even though the romance took a back seat to so many other plot points, I still found it really enjoyable. The navigation of grief with many other issues was done so well, and I found myself rooting for this couple harder than I have many others.

The only downsides are that it felt a little long and dragged out at points, and that with so many characters, it sometimes got a bit confusing.

I loved this book so much! I really identified with Ezra as someone who also feels like I’ve been an adult and a parent since I was a kid. Watching him struggle to let himself need help was really great and a reminder for myself. I loved the mix of family (born and chosen), faith, grief, and finding love. Such a great book!

This story focuses on Ezra, a Jewish transman, yoga teacher, dog dad, doula, son helping at the family funeral home, and somehow happens to see the dead. This book is so ridiculously well written and I feel it almost passes into the literary fiction category. Ezra, Aaron, Becca, Jonathan, Ben, and even Sappho the dog (the best dog!), are so well-written, described, to the point where they feel like folx you know.

I do think there's a lot going on in this book and the romance is really on the backburner so I wouldn't read this if you're expecting a relatively straightforward MM romance. A central theme is grief. How we process grief, respond to it, and death practices...all of it's at the forefront here. And I love this line from the end of the book: Not all grieving has to hurt.

There's a lot of beauty and hope in here and I can't believe this is a debut.

I’m not a huge romance reader, but I enjoyed this a lot! A really lovely and heartwarming story about found families, queer love and community, and some good old fashioned (but not really old-fashioned at all) ghost-haunting. Particularly recommend to fans of Linda Holmes - the characters in this book are similarly thoughtful and caring.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I can’t even believe this book exists. It is so funny and so sweet and so unlike anything I have ever read. I just love, love, love it. Ezra Friedman is a trans Jewish clairvoyant (I know!) who fled from the family business as soon as he could because his family owns and lives in a funeral home. He grew up being spoken to and judged by all the family ghosts! When he returns home to help the failing business, he has to cope with the fact that his mother is running off with their rabbi’s wife, and also the fact that he’s got a crush on a guy named Jonathan, whose dead husband keeps popping up to talk to Ezra! Shelly Jay Shore charmed me beyond the telling of it with this debut novel. I’m one of those people who loves life and loves to laugh but always has a current of grief running somewhere below the surface. Ezra Friedman gets that in a way I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced in a book before.

They Can't Speak. They Can't Move. They Can't hurt You.


This is what Ezra Friedman tells himself when he communes with ghosts, having spent his childhood in a funeral home. His grandfather's ghost hovers over him, seething with disapproval and distaste. Ezra cannot wait for the day he can leave his judgement family - both dead and alive - in the past. Running away is the only option.

Except, that's when his dream job is taken out from under him. His mother ruins Passover seder to announce her leaving with the rabbi's wife. Now, his family is disgraced and the family business is on the brink of financial ruin.

Now, he is asked to help out at the funeral home, where he grew up with the ghosts he must contend with once again. It makes things easier when there is a certain handsome volunteer named Jonathan to greet him everyday.

Jonathan also has to deal with the fact that he sees Jonathan's husband, Ben. Growing up, the ghouls could not voice their pain nor their messages. Ben is the first ghost, first specter, to voice his thoughts.

This was a super emotional read for me. I came for the spooky vibes and stayed for the tears and the laughs and the warm feels. It was bit of a slow burn, but it was so so worth it in the end. It was full of love and friendship, of grief.

Not surprisingly, death was a heavy topic of the book, and not in a bad way. Death is society's ick, everyone gets uncomfortable around the topic, because it is that dismal end everyone will collectively face one day.

This book covered grief and love and death in a way that was not overbearingly depressing. It was sweet and tender-hearted. I liked that Ezra wanted to heal his relationship with his family, that he was putting in the effort and the time. And the romance, oh was so worth it and beautiful and wholesome. 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars!

Rules Of Ghosting was more about family drama than seeing ghosts. I had to admit I was disappointed. I really wanted to read more about someone who could see and interact with ghosts. Ezra, the main character, is going through a difficult time. His parents marriage is over and now he has to help out at the family's funeral home, a place he likes to avoid since it is filled with ghosts. Ezra is also transgender and is trying to navigate a new relationship. The story is filled with ups and downs as Ezra tries to navigate his changing world as well as deal with ghosts that only he can see.

The writing was good and the story moved along but I did not connect with Ezra. In fairness, I am not the target audience for this book and I really thought there would be much more paranormal action. It is not a bad story, it was just not for me.

Thank you to Random House/Dell Publishing for this ARC.

I'll be honest, the cover and title of this book are what drew me in, but the story was so unexpectedly heartwarming and delightful. The realistic representation in this book of both the queer and Jewish communities is refreshing - there are no romanticized or idealized aspects of Ezra's life, nor those of his friends and family. We are introduced to Ezra, a trans man, who knew from a young age who he was and how he wanted to live his life. This story begins several years after he came out to his family, who are not only supportive of his identity but fully embrace Ezra as he is. His family owns and operates a Jewish funeral home, and, as the title suggests, there are some ghosts involved (both spiritually and metaphorically). I would highly recommend this book for anyone as a reminder that we are each on our own, individual journey to healing, whether that is from the passing of a loved one or coming to terms with one's identity/gender/sexuality. While others may not necessarily be able to see your personal progress or checkpoints on that journey, it's important to give yourself the grace and space to process as you need to.

Rules for Ghosting follows Ezra as he navigates old and new queer friendships, intensely complex family relationships, oh and he can see ghosts! This book does a brilliant job of capturing the feelings and complexities of being the eldest afab child in a family, while also covering so many other complex topics in an eloquent way. I loved getting to see so much queer representation, both in relationships and friendships throughout the novel. I will say throughout a lot of the book, I thought it was trying to cover too many pieces and plot lines, but everything comes together at the end and ties up beautifully!

I loved this book so much. It is SO queer and SO Jewish. It's also just really sweet - a lovely and tender (and funny) story about loss and family and eldest daughter syndrome (gender neutral) and ghosts and love. So anyone will like it. But readers who are queer or Jewish and especially those who are both (like I am) will absolutely adore it. The fastest pre-order I've ever done.

🚨Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Randomhouse for my e-arc🚨


Shelly Jay shore, has become one of my auto-buy authors and this is only their debut!!!

From page 1 I was immediately hooked, I felt like I was in the story all of the descriptions and all the details were what it possible for me. I want to feel like I am in the “world” with all the characters when I’m reading.
The representation in this book hit so many marks: LGBTQIA+, religion, loss/grief, love and mental health(anxiety). Each and every one was handled with such sensitivity and grace and love it would be hard to not find at least little of yourself in all the characters if not a lot of yourself in all of the characters.
The found family for Ezra *chefs 😘 *

I’m not sure if this is going to be a standalone or series but I could easily see so many books coming within this world.

Rules For Ghosting follows Ezra, a Jewish transgender male who can see ghosts. His life is does a full 180 and he finds himself working at his family’s funeral home, moving in with his ex and their friends, and aggressively NOT trying to fall in love with the cute boy who volunteers at the funeral home and also lives in the unit below him. Rules For Ghosting explores life, death, love, and loss through the lens of Jewish and LGBTQIA+ culture.

This book had me teary eyed more than once, which is a big deal because I never cry. I connected so deeply with this book and its themes of found family, love, and growth. This is Shelly Jay Shore’s debut novel and I hope she writes more. Rules for Ghosting is easily one of my favorite books of all time.

5 / 5 stars !!

i usually really have to like a book to give it a full solid five stars but i genuinely adored everything about this book, i don't have a single complaint at all. it initially intrigued because of the blurb, i had never heard of a story that is set in what life would be like for people involved in funeral services, and it's always something that has interested me, strangely enough maybe. to find out that it would be mlm, and that the main character, ezra, is a trans man was enough to get me to read it. and i am by no means disappointed, a story dealing with so many different things so beautifully; grief, love, death, healing, found family, queerness and all about jewish faith and things revolving around it. loads of diversity, told and handled so well. i am absolutely obsessed with this book, truly.

for a debut from the author, this was absolutely incredible, and i will most definitely keep my eyes out for any other books from them going forward.

thank you to the publishers and netgalley for giving me a copy of this arc in exchange for an honest review!

To be honest, I just applied for this book ARC just because it sounded interesting. I had no intention of loving it as much as I did, but here I am. While I was right in it not being a top 10 favorite book, it's certainly up there. I love the unconventionality of the whole thing– it's like if someone did a randomizer for different things and just smashed them all together. If that's the case, Shore definitely got a great lot :)