I’ve played Pokemon since I was about 10 years old. I remember hiding under my blankets at night with a flashlight and a Game Boy Color, burning my batteries down. When I played, I didn’t just see pixels. I could smell that knee-high grass, and the caves had dank, sticky air like the storage unit beneath our house.
The whole time I played Pokemon, I was telling myself stories, and there was no setting more gripping than Lavender Town. Here, there were ghosts.
Pokemon don’t always just faint—sometimes, they die.
When you arrive, the big event is Pokémon Tower, which is effectively a multi-story cemetery. Now, you always knew Team Rocket was up to no good. But soon you learn local members murdered a Marowak and have taken Mr. Fuji, the caretaker of the tower, hostage. This is a way darker plot line than usual. Using a special item that lets you see ghost Pokemon for what they are, you battle your way up the tower, defeating psychics and Team Rocket as you go. In the end, in addition to freeing Mr. Fuji, you have to pacify the vengeful Marowak spirit, which was seeking its orphaned Cubone.
Heavy shit for a kid.
But even then, I loved ghost stories that empathize with the ghost. As an adult, that’s how my ghosts usually are: uncanny, but wounded. And whenever the ghost types start coming out in Pokemon Go, I get the urge to get writing . . . and reading! Here’s some horror and otherwise spooky book recs that I think ghost Pokemon would love.
Ghost Pokemon Book Recs
#0092
GHASTLY. Almost invisible, this gaseous POKéMON cloaks the target and puts it to sleep without notice.
#0200
MISDREAVUS. It chants incantations. While they usually torment targets, some chants bring happiness.
#0302
SABLEYE. It hides in the darkness of caves. Its diet of gems has transformed its eyes into gemstones.
#0354
BANETTE. A cursed energy permeated the stuffing of a discarded and forgotten plush doll, giving it new life as BANETTE. Its energy would escape if it were to ever open its mouth.
#0355
DUSKULL. Can pass through any wall no matter how thick. Once this POKéMON chooses a target, it will doggedly pursue the intended victim until the break of dawn.
#0478
FROSLASS. It’s said that on nights of terrible blizzards, it comes down to human settlements. If you hear it knocking at your door, do not open it!
#0562
YAMASK. Each of them carries a mask that used to be its face when it was human. Sometimes they look at it and cry.
#0592
FRILLISH. If its veil-like arms stun and wrap a foe, that foe will be dragged miles below the surface, never to return.
#0609
CHANDELURE. In homes illuminated by Chandelure instead of lights, funerals were a constant occurrence—or so it’s said.
#0708
PHANTUMP. According to old tales, these Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest.
#778
MIMIKYU. Even as it struggles beneath the cloth to repair the broken neck of its disguise, Mimikyu keeps up its impersonation of Pikachu.
#0855
POLTEAGEIST. Leaving leftover black tea unattended is asking for this Pokémon to come along and pour itself into it, turning the tea into a new Polteageist.
#0885
DREEPY. After being reborn as a ghost Pokémon, Dreepy wanders the areas it used to inhabit back when it was alive in prehistoric seas.
#0897
SPECTRIER. It probes its surroundings with all its senses save one—it doesn’t use its sense of sight. Spectrier’s kicks are said to separate soul from body.
#0979
ANNIHILAPE. It imbues its fists with the power of the rage that it kept hidden in its heart. Opponents struck by these imbued fists will be shattered to their core.
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