History Literature / TheMediator

-->"I can see ghosts. I can talk to ghosts and, if necessary, I can kick some serious ghost butt."

* TheStoner: Sleepy, according to the WordofGod.

** continues in ''Remeberance'; Suze calls her triplet nieces [[BeatrixPotter Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail.]]

** As time goes by, Suze's nicknames for her stepbrothers become more like this. It's certainly the case for Doc, a.k.a. David, the youngest, who Suze likes the most out of the three.

** Heather may also qualify.

A novella, ''The Proposal'', and a seventh book will be released in 2016 with a time-skip.

* HighSchool

* InvisibleToAdults: A young Susannah Simon assumed this after she encountered her first ghost when she was two, and her mother had no reaction to it. [[spoiler:It's implied that her smart reaction in comparison to another mediator (who shot his mouth off to anyone who would listen, leading to years of therapy and his parents palming him off on various babysitters until Suze taks it upon herself to show him the ropes) is because she is a shifter, and with her additional abilities comes an odd intuition.]] [[AvertedTrope Averted]]- when her father died when Suze was six, he explained the whole mediator thing to her.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Paul Slater. At first Suze thinks of him as a typical rich kid with a younger brother he can't understand, but then it reveals he [[spoiler: is also a mediator, leaving his younger brother in the lurch when the latter stops seeing ghosts as well]], has no reaction to Suze searching for Jesse in the afterlife with a time limit of returning to her own body, and [[spoiler: worked with Maria de Silva to exorcise Jesse leaving Suze as a potential bystander]]. Both Jack Slater and Suze are less than amused.

* PsychoEx: Heather and Maria, though Maria is less concerned with Jesse and more concerned with her own family's reputation. [[spoiler:The latter is portrayed as especially psychotic as her motivations for murdering her cousin/fiancé were incredibly selfish, and her motivations for murdering an innocent historian were to protect her reputation, which as Suze points out, no one cares about since she's just 'some skank who lived a century and a half ago'.]]

* WickedStepmother: Gender-inverted and completely [[AvertedTrope averted]] with Andy Ackerman, Suze's stepfather. He's very nice, and he makes her mother happy- and thanks to also being able to confirm that her father's okay with it, they get along very well. It helps that he's a SupremeChef.
* WildTeenParty: [[DumbJock Brad]] decides to hold one whilst his father and stepmother are away during ''Haunted/Grave Doubts''. Suze is blackmailed into staying quiet about it, and when it finally takes place at the end of the book, it predictably gets out of control. However, it should probably be notes that most of the eventual problems and damage is caused by spiritual beings.

** Paul gets in on this as well, and [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy even]] [[LampshadedTrope comments]] on it as a similarity between himself and Suze.

A YoungAdult series by MegCabot. Suzannah Simon has a problem: she's been able to see and speak to ghosts all her life, something that no one else she has ever encountered can do. This has led to more problems than she can count over the years trying to help out the lost spirits she encounters- including being arrested for breaking and entering, a weird dislike for old houses and just all-around general odd behaviour that no one else can fathom.

** Dr Clive Clemmings, PhD.

* AlphaBitch / LovableAlphaBitch: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with Kelly. There are moments where she can be the typical AlphaBitch, especially early in ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'', but she's just as human as anyone else and can even have pleasant interactions with more likeable characters. By the end of the series, the diagnosis is that she's a bit of a snob and plenty cutting when it suits her, not to mention obsessed with reputation, but nowhere near the monster you might expect.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sleepy, albeit somewhat inconsistently. Despite believing (or at least strongly suspecting) that Suze is in some sort of gang, it appears that he mentions nothing of it to their parents; similarly, when he finds out she borrowed his keys to sneak out, he tells her that he doesn't think gangs are cool, but whatever she's doing is her business and to put gas in the car (although this played more as a cool big brother moment). However, he rescues Suze at the end of the ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'' and tells her off like a parent would, and he's also very protective when Michael Meducci comes along in ''Reunion/Mean Spirits''. He even offers to 'deal' with Paul if he's harassing her in ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood''. After she admits she's not interested in Paul because she likes someone else, he interrogates her about the second person's identity, saying "if I find out you're going out with a gangbanger from the Valley — "

* BlessedWithSuck: Suze's initial opinion of being a mediator. Father Dominic has rather different opinions, being Catholic, which is one of the biggest things they clash over.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Discussed in ''Ninth Key''. The reason why Suze went to talk to Mr. Beaumont [[spoiler: and nearly got murdered by Marcus Beaumont]] was to deliver a message from a ghost to "Red". As it turns out, she had the wrong Red; the ghost was referring to [[spoiler: "Doc" aka David, who had made the decision to take his mother off life-support and was feeling guilty about it.]] Jesse points out that while Suze invited a lot of trouble, she DID stop a CorruptCorporateExecutive from [[spoiler: getting away with more murder related to environmental issues and drugging his brother into a lunatic state]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: Paul. More often than not, he's openly flirting with Suze as they're standing in the creepy empty hallways between worlds, or as he steals money from a dead woman that he doesn't even need because his family is filthy rich, or pleasantly asking Jesse how he feels about being dead and casually making false claims that he [[spoiler:slept with Suze, the love of Jesse's life,]] just to piss him off.
** Possibly a StepfordSmiler variety, though, as it's implied near the end of ''Twilight/Heaven Sent'' that [[spoiler:he's just as messed up, confused, emotionally damaged and neglected by his parents as his little brother is, and a part of him really ''did'' see something of himself in Suze and tried everything he could think of to get close to her. They do become friends in the end, after he accepts that she chose Jesse and she begins to see the other side of him when the façade cracks.]]

* FlirtyStepsiblings: David's apparent one-sided PrecociousCrush on Suze.

* HospitalHottie: By the end of ''Twilight/Heaven Sent'', it's pretty clear that [[spoiler:Jesse, if his raw talent, passion and sharp intellect is anything to go by, will ''definitely'' become one of these once he gets his medical degree and starts practicing.]]

* IfICantHaveYou: Heather towards Bryce. She first says that if she couldn't have him, she didn't want to live. After she kills herself and remains as a ghost, she decides that if she can't live again to be together with Bryce, then ''Bryce needs to die''.

* ManipulativeBastard / MagnificentBastard: ''Paul Slater''. Pretty much everything he does [[spoiler:up until the climax of the last book, ''Twilight/Heaven Sent'']] spells both of these tropes out in big, bold neon letters.

* UnstoppableRage: Surprisingly, ''Jesse'' of all people succumbs to this during the final chapters of ''Haunted/Grave Doubts'', which is odd considering how he is often the more level-headed out of him and Suze. Of course, [[spoiler:it was ''Paul Slater'' who provoked him. Provoked him by insinuating that he slept with Suze.]]

* ClassClown: Adam Mc Tavish. His introduction to Suze takes place outside the principal's office, where his very first lines are as follows:

--->'''Father Dominic:''' [coming out of his office] Mrs Ackerman, what a pleasure to see you again. And this must be Susannah Simon. Come in, won't you? [noticing Adam] Oh, no, Mr Mc Tavish. Not on the first day of a brand new semester.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sleepy, albeit inconsistently. Despite believing (or at least strongly suspecting) that Suze is in some sort of gang, it appears that he mentions nothing of it to their parents; similarly, when he finds out she borrowed his keys to sneak out, he tells her that he doesn't think gangs are cool, but whatever she's doing is her business and to put gas in the car (although this played more as a cool big brother moment). However, he rescues Suze at the end of the ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'' and tells her off like a parent would, and he's also very protective when Michael Meducci comes along in ''Reunion/Mean Spirits''. He even offers to 'deal' with Paul if he's harassing her in ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood''.

* IAmNotPretty: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Suze, who knows full well that she is attractive. Her status as a social oddity is firmly established as a result of her behavior, not looks. Her various love interests seem to agree, most of them very attracted to her but somewhat thrown by her odd behavior.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Heather, from ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'', even ''before'' she died. In life, whilst Christmas shopping with her boyfriend, she pointed out an engagement ring and said she wanted it, and he panicked and dumped her. Possibly an honest misunderstanding, but then she starts hounding him and his family ''constantly''. When they refused to reply, he went to their house on New Year's Eve, a gun to her head, and demanded to see him, or she would kill herself. Only they had sent him away with relatives to try and get some respite. ''So she shoots herself''. And in death? She actively tries to kill her ex-boyfriend and the girl she perceives is 'taking her place'. Eventually, Suze straight-up exorcises her- not without some of the mission breezeway collapsing on her for her trouble.

* GhostShipping: [[spoiler:Jesse]] and Suze, which inevitably leads to MuggleAndMagicalLoveTriangle.

The series follows Suze throughout her adjustment to her new stepfamily in California, her acquisition of friends and allies, her many conflicts (both with ghosts and the living) and the development of her relationship with Jesse de Silva, the ghost of a twenty-year old man haunting her bedroom- all wrapped up in the DeadpanSnarker attitude of our teenage protagonist.

** One of the most prominent is the one that Jesse gives to Suze. Upon first meeting her, he takes to calling Suze ''querida'', to which she snaps for him not to call her stuff in Spanish ([[RunningGag she took French, so she has no clue what he's saying when he indulges in]] GratuitousSpanish). As they gradually grow closer over the course of ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'', she begins to let it slide. Only halfway through the series [[spoiler:after the end of the third book, ''Reunion/Mean Spirits'', when she starts to realise that she has feelings for him]] does she actually bother to look up what it means. [[spoiler:It's an endearment that translates to ''sweetheart'' or ''dearest one''.]] It's implied that it was originally designed to be slightly derisive (as in, "I don't think so, [[spoiler:sweetheart]]"), and slowly becomes more genuine as [[spoiler:Jesse falls for her]].

* AlphaBitch / LovableAlphaBitch: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with Kelly. There are moments where she can be the typical AlphaBitch, especially early in ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'', but there are times when she's just as human as anyone else and can even have pleasant interaction with other more likeable characters. By the end of the series, the diagnosis is that she's a bit of a snob and plenty cutting when it suits her, not to mention obsessed with reputation, but nowhere near the monster you might expect.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: [[AvertedTrope Averted completely]]. Whenever anyone witnesses the odd events that occur with supernatural interference, chances are that they'll start believing. Biggest examples are Doc (David), who starts believing after [[spoiler:Jesse comes to him and gets him to help Suze where she is trapped under a collapsed section of the Mission Academy's roof]], and [[spoiler:Cee Cee]], after the incident at the house party at the end of ''Haunted/Grave Doubts''- [[spoiler:having witnessed things that could not be explained any other way, and Suze talking to someone who wasn't there (Jesse, who Suze had told her about), she is forced to conclude that Jesse is a ghost and Suze can see them. She takes it very well.]]
* ArrangedMarriage: [[KissingCousins Jesse and Maria de Silva]]. [[spoiler:Their engagement ended very badly. Though he didn't really know her, Jesse was willing to marry her out of honour, until he found out about her secret slave-runner boyfriend, and decided to break it off. Maria, after hearing this, got said boyfriend to kill him so that he wouldn't ruin her reputation.]]
* BadassBookworm: ''Jesse'', surprisingly, [[spoiler:to the point where he wanted to be a doctor, and actually gets the chance to study for a medical degree at the very end of the final book]]. Despite having been born and lived over a century and a half ago, Suze points out that he didn't stay stuck in the past, but followed along with every new advance and idea and change, and loves to read. He's actually ingrained enough in the modern setting that Suze finds herself forgetting sometimes that many pop-culture references go right over his head. However, at the same time, not only does he use his considerable telekinetic abilities to help Suze out of a very tight spot, he fights alongside her on multiple occasions, and ''twice'' defeats [[spoiler:the man who murdered him]], both times in a fair fight. Not to mention that he nearly beats [[spoiler:Paul]] into a bloody pulp, who even Suze had trouble getting away from on one occasion. ''Wow.''

* TheBeautifulElite: Somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]]- the area and school Suze attends ''is'' a prime location, and therefore fairly exclusive to the well-off. Therefore most of the handsome boys Suze ends up meeting who also have pretty wealthy and/or well-connected families have a good reason- most of the families in the area do (or, in Paul's case during the forth book ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood'', are rich enough to be staying in the luxury hotel for the summer), and it just so happens that they're the good looking ones of her age.

* BettyAndVeronica: Suze between Jesse (Betty) and Paul (Veronica). However, as a ghost, Jesse is not exactly a safe choice. In fact, on the surface Paul seems like a safe choice for someone like Suze. He's a mediator, he goes to school with her, he's conventionally attractive, and he makes it clear that he's interested. It's Jesse who seems forbidden.

--->'''Suze:''' "You lay one hand on my brother, and I'll stuff you right back into that grave you crawled out of."
** It is not advisable to either hurt, harass or otherwise try to stake your romantic claim on Susannah Simon when Jesse is around- and even when he's ''not''. At one point he randomly appears as [[spoiler:Paul Slater is attempting to seduce her]] and pins his arm behind his back until he apologises. He does this a pretty much any time Suze is insulted, even if she doesn't take offence or really doesn't care.
*** And unless you have a death wish, do not [[spoiler:insinuate that you slept with her. It will not end well]].

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sleepy, albeit inconsistently. Despite believing (or at least strongly suspecting) that Suze is in some sort of gang, it appears that he mentions nothing of it to their parents; similarly, when he finds out she borrowed his keys to sneak out, Sleepy tells her that he doesn't think gangs are cool, but whatever she's doing is her business and to put gas in the car (although this played more as a cool big brother moment). However, he rescues Suze at the end of the ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'' and tells her off like a parent would, and he's also very protective when Michael Meducci comes along in ''Reunion/Mean Spirits''. He even offers to 'deal' with Paul if he's harassing her in ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood''.

* BrainyBrunette: Jesse, who loves books with a passion, and is a keen intellectual. [[spoiler:In life, his dream was to be a doctor, although his circumstances couldn't allow it- his parents couldn't spare him from the ranch to put him through medical school.]]

** Hell, let's be fair. Suze is pretty damn sharp too, even if her fiery nature and innate sense of blind protectiveness gets in the way of it sometimes.

* CallBack: A pretty funny one, concerning how when Suze was berating Jesse over agreeing to marry [[spoiler:his psychopathic cousin Maria]], he tells her to 'stop calling her that'. Thinking he means the word 'skank', she does, and carries on berating him. He corrects her, saying that he meant 'girlfriend', pointing out that she wasn't and that he barely knew her. And [[spoiler:a hundred and fifty years in the past, Jesse says the exact same thing- except about Suze referencing 'the future'.]]
* CassandraTruth: The existence of ghosts, and the real explanation of the many incidents Suze gets in trouble for. Generally, she's gotten used to it and simply lets people believe that she's a TroubledButCute gangbanger.

** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] beautifully with Suze's stepbrother Doc (David) in the very first book, and [[spoiler:her best friend Cee Cee by the end of ''Darkest Hour/Grave Doubts'']]. After witnessing some things for themselves that simply cannot be explained, they believe in ghosts even after Suze adamantly denies it. Especially touching in [[spoiler:Cee Cee]]'s case, who is scientifically minded and had even less evidence than Doc did, but is willing to believe and patiently wait for Suze to tell her the truth in her own time.

** Paul, by the end. [[spoiler:Having been a {{Jerkass}} to Suze for most of the latter half of the series, he eventually seems to accept that she chose Jesse over him and that they were never meant to be, and with this realisation, wants to be friends. In the last few chapters of ''Twilight/Heaven Sent'', he is far nicer and more human, showing a genuine concern for others' well being and willing to reform.]]
* ChekhovsGun: The miniature of Jesse that Suze sees in the museum, a total of three times. The first time is when [[spoiler:Maria steals it in order to exorcise Jesse.]] By the end of the book [[spoiler:Jack gives it to Suze as an apology, not knowing what else to do with it. Rather than return it, she keeps it, and later uses it to shift back in time to the night before Jesse was killed.]] And then she uses it [[spoiler:in her attempt to convince him that she's from the future. It doesn't work, so she eventually resorts to SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay.]]
** The tortoiseshell barrette Suze loses on the first day back at school on ''Darkest Hour/Grave Doubts''. Turns out that [[spoiler:Paul picked it up, and has been keeping it ever since just so that he can use it as fake evidence to rub in Jesse's face when he returns it, saying in his presence that Suze left it "in his bed".]]

--->'''Adam''': [solemnly] It's true. It happened last year. My sister. [voice drops conspiratorially] She's adopted.

--->'''Father Dominic:''' [coming out of his office] Mrs Ackerman, what a pleasure to see you again. And this must be Susannah Simon. Come in, won't you? [noticing Adam for the first time] Oh, no, Mr Mc Tavish. Not on the first day of a brand new semester.
--->'''Adam:''' [shrugging] What can I say? The broad hates me.
--->'''Father Dominic:''' Kindly do not refer to Sister Ernestine as a broad, Mr Mc Tavish.

* ConsummateLiar: Suze, through years of practice. She's so good that she even manages to lie convincingly to ''Father Dom'', several times, over the course of the series. The only people she consistently has trouble with are her mother (she's pretty hard to fake out, since she's a journalist and used to looking for lies; plus, Suze never feels very good about doing it, since her mom is "a nice lady who really doesn't deserve a biological freak for a daughter") and Jesse, who catches onto it from pretty much day one.

* CoolLoser: Suze, it seems, though the reasons for the 'loser' half of her statement are more obvious than normal for this trope. Thanks to her dealings with ghosts and the supernatural, she easily comes of as 'weird' and 'jinxed', occasionally talks to walls or to people who aren't present, and has been known to snub the company of more popular girls in favour of people she actually likes. She seems to teeter neatly on the edge between, however, thanks to her good fashion sense, confident, fearless attitude and general attractiveness and intelligence.

** [[spoiler:Jesse]] finally snaps and delivers the mother of all beat-downs to [[spoiler:Paul Slater]] after the latter insinuates that he has been sleeping with [[spoiler:the girl he loves, Suze]] for months. The latter ends up with a broken nose, and the former barely even takes a single blow.

** Paul gets in on this as well, and even [[LampshadedTrope comments]] on it as a similarity between himself and Suze.
* TheDeterminator: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with Suze. Her raw determination and fiery nature can be one of her best assets, and a part of the reason she's liked by her friends, especially as it's usually fuelled by a protective instinct and a sense of responsibility. It has, admittedly, helped her to survive in many situations where she could have died. However, on more than one occasion her overconfidence gets her badly hurt, and someone- often Jesse, who warns her that she's taking on too much beforehand- comes to her rescue. Jesse criticises her for this in ''Haunted/Grave Doubts'', reminding her that she's not invulnerable and begging her to accept a little help from the people who care about her once in a while. She does improve a little over time, realising when she needs to bring in a little extra help- most notably in ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood'', when [[spoiler:Jesse is exorcised and Maria de Silva/Diego is targeting her family, she asks for Father Dom's help in blessing the house in the hopes that, as a devout Catholic, Maria will at least balk at intruding inside the house, giving them time to deal with her.]]

* MexicanAmericanWar: Though the war is never discussed, Jesse would have been about ten when the area became US territory. When Suze calls him a cowboy, he takes great offense, saying that his family "worked like slaves to make something of themselves in this country." He is established to have been the son of a wealthy rancher.

* RuleOfThree: The miniature portrait of Jesse turns up as a ChekovsGun a total of three times. Suze also gets three new stepbrothers when her mother remarries.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sleepy, albeit inconsistently. Despite believing (or at least strongly suspecting) that Suze is in some sort of gang, it appears that he mentions nothing of it to their parents; similarly, when he finds out she borrowed his keys to sneak out, Sleepy tells her that he doesn't think gangs are cool, but whatever she's doing is her business and to put gas in the car (although this is possibly more of a cool big brother moment). However, he rescues Suze at the end of the ''Shadowland/Love You to Death'' and tells her off like a parent would, and he's also very protective when Michael Meducci comes along in ''Reunion/Mean Spirits''. He even offers to 'deal' with Paul if he's harassing her in ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood''.

* ChekhovsGun: The miniature of Jesse that Suze sees in the museum, twice. [[spoiler:The first time is when Maria steals it in order to exorcise Jesse, and Jack eventually gives it to Suze as an apology. Rather than return it, she keeps it, and later uses it to shift back in time to the night before Jesse was killed.]] Actually three times, really, since she also uses it [[spoiler:in her attempt to convince him that she's from the future. It doesn't work, so she eventually resorts to SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay.]]

--->'''Father Dominic:''' Kindly do not refer to Sister Ernestine as a broad, Mr Mc Tavish. I will see you in a moment, after I have spoken to these ladies.

* RunawayBride: Except Maria doesn't just run away. [[spoiler: She has Jesse killed and his body buried so that people would think ''he'' was the one who ran for it.]]

-->- '''Susannah 'Suze' Simon''', ''Shadowland/Love You to Death''

* MadeOfIron: Mediators, it seems, as a [[RequiredSecondaryPowers Required Secondary Power]], given all of the damage they have to take in their duties. A proven point: not including any incidents that have happened before the start of the books, Suze has had a roof collapse on her, been almost drowned no less than three times, been badly beaten by two spirits with double her physical strength and easily fifty times faster recovery times, been thrown off a rooftop and into a six-foot deep pit and survived, [[spoiler:travelled through time]] in such a method that is known to be able to destroy brain cells if done one too many times, almost died of smoke inhalation, and jumped from the top of a two-story barn without so much as a bruise to show for it. Father Dominic has been through his fair share of scrapes, too, for that matter, and has always come out okay, which is remarkable given his age. Paul, too, manages to recover from [[spoiler:the mother of all beatdowns from Jesse after he takes it one step too far by insinuating that he slept with Suze.]]
* MagneticMedium: The entire plot of the books revolves around her (mostly) unwelcome encounters with ghosts.

-->- '''Susannah 'Suze' Simon''', ''Shadowland/Love You To Death''

* ''Shadowland'' (Released as ''Love You To Death'' in the UK)

** One of the most prominent is the one that Jesse gives to Suze. Upon first meeting her, he takes to calling Suze ''querida'', to which she snaps for him not to call her stuff in Spanish ([[RunningGag she took French, so she has no clue what he's saying when he indulges in]] GratuitousSpanish). As they gradually grow closer over the course of ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'', she begins to let it slide. Only halfway through the series [[spoiler:after the end of the third book, ''Reunion/Mean Spirits'', when she starts to realise that she has feelings for him]] does she actually bother to look up what it means. [[spoiler:It's an endearment that translates to ''sweetheart'' or ''dearest one''.]] It's implied that it was originally designed to be slightly derisive (as in, "I don't think so, [[spoiler:sweetheart]]"), and slowly becomes more genuine as [[spoiler:Jesse falls for her]].

* AlphaBitch / LovableAlphaBitch: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with Kelly. There are moments where she can be the typical AlphaBitch, especially early in ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'', but there are times when she's just as human as anyone else and can even have pleasant interaction with other more likeable characters. By the end of the series, the diagnosis is that she's a bit of a snob and plenty cutting when it suits her, not to mention obsessed with reputation, but nowhere near the monster you might expect.

* BadassPreacher: Father Dominic. He's ''very'' protective of his students, especially Suze, despite being a pacifist and openly distasteful of Suze's general 'kick ass, ask questions later' approach to uncooperative spirits. He ended up getting seriously injured saving one of his students from a heavy falling crucifix in ''Shadowland/Love You To Death''.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sleepy, albeit inconsistently. Despite believing (or at least strongly suspecting) that Suze is in some sort of gang, it appears that he mentions nothing of it to their parents; similarly, when he finds out she borrowed his keys to sneak out, Sleepy tells her that he doesn't think gangs are cool, but whatever she's doing is her business and to put gas in the car (although this is possibly more of a cool big brother moment). However, he rescues Suze at the end of the ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'' and tells her off like a parent would, and he's also very protective when Michael Meducci comes along in ''Reunion/Mean Spirits''. He even offers to 'deal' with Paul if he's harassing her in ''Darkest Hour/Young Blood''.

** Paul, by the end. [[spoiler:Having been a JerkAss to Suze for most of the latter half of the series, he eventually seems to accept that she chose Jesse over him and that they were never meant to be, and with this realisation, wants to be friends. In the last few chapters of ''Twilight/Heaven Sent'', he is far nicer and more human, showing a genuine concern for others' well being and willing to reform.]]

* ClingyJealousGirl: Heather, from ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'', even ''before'' she died. In life, whilst Christmas shopping with her boyfriend, she pointed out an engagement ring and said she wanted it, and he panicked and dumped her. Possibly an honest misunderstanding, but then she starts hounding him and his family ''constantly''. When they refused to reply, he went to their house on New Years' Eve, a gun to her head, and demanded to see him, or she would kill herself. Only they had sent him away with relatives to try and get some respite. ''So she shoots herself''. And in death? She actively tries to kill her ex-boyfriend and the girl she perceives is 'taking her place'. Eventually, Suze straight-up exorcises her- not without some of the mission breezeway collapsing on her for her trouble.

* DumbBlonde: Neither of the good-looking blondes Suze dates- Bryce Martinson in the first book (''Shadowland/Love You To Death'') and Tad Beaumont (''Ninth Key/High Stakes'')- are too smart.

* MeaningfulName: Suze, especially as she decided to keep her father's surname when her mother remarries. In ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'', after discovering she's a mediator, Father Dominic mentions it's not much of a surprise to him: not only were her 'strange problems and behaviour' a dead giveaway to him, the fact that the surname Simon comes from the Hebrew word meaning ''intent listener'', indicated her 'gift' for hearing- and seeing- something most people don't.

** They're only tangible to mediators, who can see, hear and touch them just like any other living person. Ghosts can interact, however, with the real world and can also occasionally cause 'cold spots' [[spoiler:such as at the end of ''Shadowland/Love You To Death' when Doc/Dave describes how Jesse managed to tell him that Suze was in danger]].

* StalkerWithACrush: Jesse can occasionally show shades of this, particularly when she shows up in the backseat as Suze is getting her FirstKiss when Tad drops her off in front of her house. Suze even accuses him of it in the first book, ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'', though more to cover up her panic at being caught out than a true accusation. These moments seem [[JustifiedTrope justified]] the majority of the time, however (aside from the incident with Tad; even if it was down to his nineteeth century ideals, most of it is down to him being a CrazyJealousGuy). Since Suze is forever putting herself in mortal peril, having a guy like Jesse watch out for her- both smart and able to fight alongside her and protect her from danger/hold off an enemy if needed- is crucial to her survival at times.

** Bryce Martinson from ''Shadowland/Love You To Death'' qualifies, being six foot and very cute, although he has sandy-blonde hair. Suze describes him as a "true Baldwin".

* UnnamedParent: Suze's mom. She's never given a first name, although Father Dominic refers to her as 'Mrs Ackerman' in one of the very first chapters. She may have kept her maiden name for her television news reporter career, and Suze simply wanted to keep her father's name. WordofGod says her first name is Helen.