The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter
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About
“Supernatural meets Mean Girls” in this YA horror mystery for older teens.
Sixteen-year-old Anna sees things from another world, the spiritual world, a skill that isn’t exactly useful in high school. It’s bad enough that her mother, possessed by a demon, took her own life when Anna was a child, a loss she remains tortured by. Now her father makes his living “clearing” haunted objects, and Anna’s job as his assistant makes her a social misfit. Most kids in her suburban New Jersey town refer to her just as “Goblin Girl.”
Only Freddy and Dor remain loyal friends. But Anna’s so focused on her own problems, she’s missed that her connection with Freddy is moving beyond the friend zone and that Dor is in crisis.
As junior year approaches, a rare solar storm lights up the night skies and the citizens of Bloomtown begin to act strangely: Anna’s teachers lash out, her best friends withdraw, and the school bullies go from mean to murderous. When Anna realizes she can harness this evil power, she sets out to save Bloomtown and the only family she has left.
But to do so, she must keep her own increasingly dark urges at bay.
Content Warnings: suicide (while possessed), bullying, self-harm, pet harm, predatory adults in positions of power.
Praise for this book
It was a thrill ride to say the least; Sunnydale's Hellmouth on CRACK! The thing I loved most about this narrative was the supernatural lore, a rollercoaster ride of thrills, chills, and despair, and I loved every second!
I was expecting a gentle teen horror novel with a chain rattling ghost or two. I was delighted instead to be reading about some horrendously nasty hauntings and horrors of human behavior.
This one reminded me of mashed up episodes of Supernatural, The Conjuring, and Mean Girls with Hoarders tossed in for good measure. And I have to say that IT WORKED! I loved Anna and really enjoyed that she was just a normal teenager. She had her faults and she acted her age! How many young adult novels can say that?
The Ghost Hunter's Daughter exceeded my expectations in terms of the magic system, proved me wrong when I thought I knew what was really going on in the plot, and Flarity earned my respect and kudos for realistically including mental health and societal issues. The overall sense of realism in The Ghost Hunter's Daughter, good pacing, and intriguing plot made this a tough novel to put down. I highly recommend it.