Lockwood & Co. (Series) by Jonathan Stroud - 9/10

Join Lucy Carlyle as she teams up with Anthony Lockwood and George Cubbins to fight ghosts, solve mysteries, and uncover the true origins of the mysterious epidemic of hauntings throughout England.

Set in a world where children are forced into maturity at an early age because they have abilities adults lack, Lucy sees the world as a dark place, a perspective Jonathan captures masterfully in how she relates the details of settings and other characters to the reader. Apart from the world-building and mystery elements of the plot, the series chronicles how Lucy is transformed by love to begin to see hope and beauty in the world, and to realize that there are some things worth sacrificing everything for.

*These are ghost stories and, as such, there is a lot of death, murder, and some disturbing spirits and stories. However, I think this element is allowed to remain as the setting rather than being a cheap scare tactic - violence and blood for its own sake - the narrative remains focused on the protagonists trying to figure out why ghosts have become so common, tackling complex questions such as the dynamic of public vs. private good and the corruption of power and bureaucracy.