10 novels with dead protagonists

Death is often the feared and hushed up topic but courtesies to human mind which has made the same, kaleidoscopic. Many writers have attempted to explain what is beyond life, some think its heavenly while others create a whole new array of possibilities. Here are 10 books where a dead character narrates the tale.

May Elizabeth Trump was one of those souls who find the deathly silence pleasing. Dislike for company death has freed her of obligation of company. But this is changes. When she becomes a dead medium, a ghost who can speak with the living. It’s not long before she realizes that not only ghosts with long awaited messages take interest in her. Something dark was lurking in the shadows, stalking her. Even the dead are not left to rest in peace. A humorous, character driven story saga that is extraordinary in each word it speaks.
(Image: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform)

Hannah Baker, the narrator commits suicide at a very young age and records the reason on an audio tape. This audio tape finds its way to Clay Jensen, Hannah’s classmate and her secret crush revealing to him the reasons that made Hannah take such a momentous step. Hannah’s record takes him closer to understanding Hannah, her pain and her experience. In this journey of discovering Hannah, he unravels his deeper self. Some bitter truths await to get unveiled. Much against the reader’s desire the story has the defeated ending of a life.
(Image: Penguin UK)

A fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon is raped and killed by her neighbor and thus becomes the narrator. Unseen by all she struggles to come to understand the reality of her time on and observes as life changes or remains unchanged for people she knew, after her death. Though a ghost, Susie in her voice is as real and vulnerable in her afterlife as any living character she describes in the book.
(Image: Picador)

Samantha Kingston, a mean girl has it all: looks, popularity, and the perfect boyfriend but the first page Friday, February 12, turns out to be her last. Unlike expected she wakes up again next day: not to another day but the same one she died in. Caught up in a loop, living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she has to untangle the mystery surrounding her death, put right all the wrongs and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing. Watch her drastic change.
(Image: Harpercollins)

Isaac Marion has knitted a very compelling voice driven saga of the undead creature, a zombie named “R” who has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. The last brain he ate has changed him unpredictably- developing feeling for a girl! It is the inception of an unlikely romance that is so stimulating you wish it to end well.
(Image: Vintage)

Brie, the cheesiest romantic ever is heart broken when Jacob, the love of her life, tells her he doesn't love her anymore, she is left broken. Brie is dead and revisits the living world to discover things changing and that her best friend has been keeping an intimate secret about her boyfriend. Brie isn’t done with life. Topping it all, she must handle all of this while navigating through the afterlife with the help of Patrick, her mysterious bomber-jacketed guide. But how is she supposed to face the Ever After without it being a happy one?
(Image: Speak)

Eddie, a war veteran gets killed while saving a girl and finds himself in heaven. In his afterlife, he is given a tour of Heaven by the five most significant people in his life taking him on a journey of discovering and understanding where he unravels the meaning and purpose of his life on Earth.
(Image: Little, Brown Book Group)

Mia Hall meets a life altering car accident. Upon waking up her memory of the accident is absent and she watches her own damaged body and the events where her family members and friends are waiting at the hospital for the doctors to bring her back to life. Then it dawns upon her that she has a choice to make, a potential one. A heart wrenching saga which gets its depth by the presence of three dead characters.
(Image: Random House)

In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters--beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys--commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. Observations from afar, are pieced together to unravel the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, elements of magical realism in this disturbing, hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. It is a suspense thriller to keep you hooked.
(Image: Pan Macmillan India)

Narrated in postmodern style, with a unique pattern of narration; by multiples voices including the corpse of the murdered artist, a coin, Satan, two dervishes, and the color red, the book paints the picture of the philosophical system of Istanbul in 16th century. In 9 days where a Sultan employs multiple artists to create a book honoring his life and empire and be styled in European fashion. But the employer has to remain a secret to even the artists. Hence, when one of the miniaturists is murdered the reason and the murderer remain unknown. The story aims at relating the plight of miniaturists during the period of the Ottoman Empire in 1591.
(Image:Faber)