What the dead want is about a woman named Gretchen who has been looking for clues about her mother's sudden dissappearance in their lives for years. The only clues left are in their ancestral house that is apparently, full of mystery and creepy photographs. The story is very slow paced in the first half of the book but after that, I really can't seem to put it down. I didn't expect the deep history about their family, involving race, ideals, and slavery. My heart also ached for Rebecca and Celia's backstory, and even for their mothers who only wanted a great life for the two of them and nothing like the cruelty, caged, and controlled that they experienced on the hands of the men in their small town. The other characters didn't really stand out that much but Gretchen did a good job in handling the problems that was passed down to her by Esther and her own Mom. This book also shared to me the small portion of how was black-amerians were treated in the early years basically retelling the cruel reality of what they had to experienced.