The Strangely Beautiful Series

The Strangely Beautiful Series is a series of Victorian Gothic novels about Percy Parker, an albino girl who sees ghosts, written by Leanna Renee Hieber. After being raised by nuns her entire life, she is sent to Athens Academy on her 17th birthday so she might have a chance to make it somewhere in the world. While at Athens, her fate becomes tied up with the guard and their leader, Alexi Rychman, who is a mathematics professor at Athens. The guard is this world's last line of defense against the forces of the netherworld and they need to figure out that Percy is their last hope before it's too late.

The series is composed of a quartet of novels and various short stories documenting the world of Percy Parker and the guard. Common elements include long titles and using words like lyrical, ethereal, mystical, gothic, supernatural, and victorian to describe the books. Each of the four books has amazing cover art which can be viewed here.


 * Boy Meets Ghoul - Jane is in love with a ghost
 * Britain Is Only London - Subverted in the second book. The first book plays this trope straight.
 * The Chosen One - Percy was chosen to house the spirit of Persephone, Alexi was chosen to house the spirit of an ancient phoenix, and the five other members of the guard house muses of healing, intuition, heart, creativity, and memory.
 * Cold Flames - This is Alexi's main defense against demons and evil spirits.
 * Dances and Balls - Percy attends one for the first time in the first book.
 * Everybody Hates Hades - It's established he isn't Satan or a God of Evil but he's still Chaotic Evil.
 * Gaslamp Fantasy
 * Ghostly Goals - The unfinished business variety.
 * Hell Hound - The guard faces Cerberus at the end of the first book and they mention previously defeating the black dog of Newgate.
 * Historical Fantasy - It's a fantasy taking place in victorian era London.
 * Hollywood Exorcism - It's the main duty of the guard.
 * Jack the Ripper - The mundane world gives the aforementioned Cerberus this name.
 * Medusa - She's the Dragon in the first book.
 * Murder the Hypotenuse - the back story for the conflict involves Hades murdering Persephone's lover.
 * My Greatest Failure - Alexi has a sister in a wheel chair due to an unexpected, supernatural attack on his house. She serves as a reminder of why he has to be careful who he lets in his life.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different - The unfinished business variety who are in danger of being corrupted by Hades.
 * Spirit World - Called the whisper world, souls pass through here before passing on to the great beyond. Too bad they have to get past Hades first.
 * Supernatural Fiction
 * Teacher-Student Romance: Between Percy and Alexi.
 * Undeathly Pallor - Percy is an albino.
 * Victorian Britain - This is the setting of the series.