Another angle: 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro. No traditional ghosts, but Stevens the butler is utterly haunted by the ghost of his own suppressed life—the lost love, the misplaced loyalty, the career spent in service to a morally bankrupt master. His entire journey is a confrontation with the grief of a life not lived.
The haunting is in the quiet, precise prose that hints at the ocean of regret beneath. It's a masterclass in how the most profound losses are often the ones we don't allow ourselves to feel until it's far too late. The ghost is the echo of a single, missed chance for human connection that defines and diminishes his entire existence. Devastating.
I'm a big fan of 'Wuthering Heights' as a foundational grief-ghost story. Heathcliff and Cathy haunt each other long before either of them dies. Their love is a possessive, destructive force that becomes a ghost haunting the next generation. The loss of Catherine literally consumes Heathcliff, turning him into a spectral figure wandering the moors, yearning for a ghost.
The entire novel is saturated with a Gothic melancholy for a love that was too fierce for the mortal world. The famous final image of their ghosts walking together is less a comfort and more an affirmation that some losses are so total they trap souls in an eternal, unrestful bond. It's all-consuming emotional haunting.
Another video game adjacent one: the visual novel 'The House in Fata Morgana'. It's a gothic tale spanning centuries in a cursed mansion, following the tragic lives and brutal deaths of its various residents. The central 'ghost' is the Maid, who embodies the mansion's accumulated sorrow and guilt.
Each story is a devastating exploration of different kinds of loss—of love, of humanity, of hope. The overarching narrative is about piecing together these fragments of grief to find a possibility for forgiveness and release. It's incredibly written, with a soundtrack that amplifies the melancholy. It's less a book you read and more an experience that haunts you.
For a webtoon, 'Kubera' by Currygom is a fantasy epic where grief and loss are core to the world's mythology. Characters are haunted by the deaths of entire races, by betrayals millennia old, and by the slow erosion of their own memories and identities. Ghosts of the past drive every political and personal conflict.
The scale is massive, but the character work makes the grief intimate. Watching a character carry the weight of a lost civilization, or make choices to prevent a future loss only to create a worse one, is heartbreaking. It's a slow-burn commitment, but it builds a haunting sense of tragic inevitability where every victory is tinged with profound loss.
The phone had fallen and disassembled and the call, disconnected.
"Who, who, who are you?" She became a heavy stutterer in an instant.
The man who stood at the door to the kitchen walked forward and the light illuminated his features.
He was lean and tall, very tall. Dressed in a white long sleeved shirt and dark suit pants, the few exposed parts of his body were ashen, lifeless and cold, like a bleak winter day.
"Marry me." These were the two words that came from the deathly pale lips of his emotionless face...
**********
Moving away from her overprotective parents, Geneva thought that she could finally lead a stress-free life. This was ruined when a ghost demands intimacy with her, his soulmate, to recover his lost memories and body.
"We can't be together if I am still alive..."
"No... Please, don't do that..."
-------------------------------
Ria, a freshmen in college, need to find a new place for her to stay and she just found a perfect one.
A big house in the center of the town, just as she need it. Moreover the price is cheaper than she thought it would be!
Later she found out that she was not the only one who lived in that house.
Someone was already there for years.
Alone...
Waiting for anyone that can help him to find out...
How did he really dead that day....
Aside from helping the ghost, apparently he also helping her to fill her lonely heart,
Protect her fragile self...
He, who is no longer alive understand her feelings better than one who is still breathing...
How can a ghost and a human be together?
Shall the other one have to leave this world too?
"Okay guys, we're here."
"Alright, let's do this!"
~•~•~
Five teenagers decide to go on a dangerous adventure in a dark and hollow abandoned house in a deserted area miles away from their town.
The house was rumoured to be a death trap for anyone who steps into it but all they really wanted more than anything was an adventure of their own - well, some of them.
But in the end, they never made it out to tell their adventurous story.
Twenty years down the line, a dorky and introverted 17year old Isabella Davies, who was a high school final year student decides to go on an adventure of her own in that same house.
She barely managed to escape but her normal dorky life turns into a horrifying nightmare overnight as she becomes cursed with a ghost of death.
What would you do if your apartment is haunted by a ghost too handsome for any girl peace of mind?
That is the exact problem Maisie is faced with. Falling for a ghost. Moving to a new city only to have all her hopes for her future destroyed, she tried to make do with her current situation only to discover a ghost in her apartment. Things become even more weird when unexplained incidents happen at her work place almost killing her, still Zach helped her with that only to disappear when she confessed her feelings for him.
Heart broken, Maisie did her best to move on but there is only so much you can do to move on when the ghost you love returns to you as your boss.
When two destinies cross, the latter as they say is the result.
A story of a sea princess who was sent away from her kingdom just because she was said to be the next Goddess of the sea and given a law by her mum not to love or she will lose her life.
Things happened over the years and she loses her life.
Now a ghost she seeks rest for her soul and destiny leads her to a male who can see ghosts. And who also has a deep secret behind his existence.
Will he accept to lead her through the journey to freedom and battle all that will face him?
Who is the young boy?
Will there come forth a relationship between them?
A fight for love, throne, and power.
A story full of mysteries and adventures.
Sit back, grab your popcorn and enjoy.
'The Bone Orchard' by Sara A. Mueller is a fascinating blend of fantasy, mystery, and psychological ghost story. The protagonist, Charm, is a madam who is also the boneghosts of her former self, each embodying a different aspect of her psyche and trauma. The grief here is multifaceted: for her own shattered identity, for the murdered emperor she loved, and for the lies that built her world. The supernatural setup is the entire vehicle for dissecting how we fracture and compartmentalize ourselves to survive loss. It's a dense, unique read.
The ghost as a metaphor for inherited trauma is a powerful angle. 'Beloved' is the pinnacle. But also, 'Home' by Toni Morrison deals with a Korean War vet haunted by his past. In a different genre, the film 'Hereditary' (and novels with similar themes) show the ghost as a literal family curse, where the grief and horror are passed down through generations. The supernatural visit isn't a one-time event; it's a legacy. You're not just mourning a person; you're mourning the damage their death (or life) caused, and that damage becomes its own haunting entity for the next generation.
Ever read 'Beloved' by Toni Morrison? It's a monumental work where the supernatural is the direct, undeniable consequence of horrific trauma. The ghost isn't a metaphor; it's a literal, demanding presence born from an unspeakable act. The emotional drama is raw, historical, and deeply painful, exploring motherhood, memory, and the legacy of slavery. The supernatural element is the engine for the entire plot and the emotional catharsis.
'The Woman in the Dunes' by Kobo Abe isn't supernatural, but it’s one of the most potent psychological horror stories ever. A man is trapped in a sand pit with a woman, forced to endlessly shovel back the drifting sand. The slow burn is the erosion of his identity, hope, and connection to the outside world. The horror is existential and claustrophobic, and the "haunting" is by the relentless, meaningless labor and the societal structure that maintains it. It reads like a nightmare from which there’s no waking. If you want psychological horror that happens to use a ghostly metaphor for entrapment, this is a masterpiece.