Cover Image: The Ghost Hunter's Daughter

The Ghost Hunter's Daughter

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Member Reviews

I picked up this book because the concept really excited me. However, I did not finish it. While the concept was engaging, the daughter of someone who deals with haunted objects, and is also a hoarder, so she is forced to take care of him to some extent, is a really solid foundation, the writing in the beginning was overly expository and I didn't feel connected with that main character, no matter how hard I tried. The voices of the characters felt forced and the undercurrent of missing mom and being resentful felt overly loud. I really desperately wanted to like this book but I just couldn't make myself, and eventually had to put it down.

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I love love love love love a great paranormal mystery. This book had everything that a young adult would want in a book. A spooky fast-paced page-turner that any paranormal mystery lover will enjoy.

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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.
Trigger warnings - suicide (while possessed), suicide ideation, mental illness (hoarding) and self-harm, pet death, a ghost that was assaulted as a child "bride" during her life, predatory and/or abusive adults in positions of power.

I loved this book!,. This was a fun YA paranormal book and as a fan of the paranormal and everything ghostly, this book really appealed to me when I read the blurb and I was over the moon when I got approved for a E-ARC. The book did not disappoint, the book does get darker throughout and it was a shock at first with it being a YA book but I loved the darker side of it and made the book more interesting for me and I read this book in one day I loved it that much.
This book is definitely one to read if you don’t get triggered by the thing stated and you have a love for ghosts and the paranormal. This is one to definitely read in October and one I will be rereading at Halloween.
I gave this book 4.5 stars

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Really like the way the author takes you thru a cluster of different emotions with a very interesting plot.
Perfect for YA readers.

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This is a great tale for fans of the paranormal. It follows Anna a young teenage girl struggling to cope with the reality of being the towns version of The Addams family. She battles with beings from other realms as well as having the typical teenage dilemmas. The story has great twists and turns and is a real page turner!

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Fun little young adult book involving the spiritual world I really enjoyed. At times I felt frustrated with the protagonist, but I'm also past the age of the follies of youth. Very satisfying ending and the author did a great job on the suspense.

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Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed "The Ghost Hunter's Daughter". I've always been partial to books about ghosts and spooks and such. This book is about about Anna a sixteen year old girl. Her father is the town's freak, a ghostbuster of sorts who can get rid of the spook's who are haunting objects. Anna's mother died when she was younger after being possessed by a demon. This makes Anna a bit of an outcast at school and the kids there call her "Goblin Girl". I thought the book was really interesting and had a good mix of pace, action and character development. The book also goes a little deeper than many similar YA books. The town seems like it is going crazy. Everyone is acting strangely or even more strangely than usual. People are violent. Some are suicidal or turning to self harm. What is happening? Anna, her two best friends, and her dad and his new business assistant Geneva find themselves in the thick of things. Geneva has a new invention that shows evil or ghostly beings or items. Together they begin to unravel the mysteries of the town. The book deals with some topics such as self harm, thoughts of suicide, death, murder, teen bullies and teen exploitation. There are some teachers doing some pervy things. None of these items get involved or too deep. The book does show the good in people and the ability to overcome the negative forces at play in the town. Although this appears to be a stand alone there is enough material here for the author to choose to make more books about Anna and company.

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3.5 stars
So I love ghost related paranormal reads. I will admit this one was a little darker than I thought it’d be, but it was over all pretty well written and interesting. My largest issue stems from the Mc Anna herself. I did not find her to be the most likable person. So it was hard to really enjoy the read.

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Thank you to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

For a YA novel, this book sure gave off all the creepy vibes!!! I got to the point where I couldn't read it home alone at night and instead waited until the safe hours of daylight to brave this story of demons and ghosts and tricksters!!! Just thinking of a Trickster tugging the covers off me while I sleep and playing with my hair gave me the heebie jeebies!!!

All in all this wasn't one of the greats, but it sure was fun and kept me entertained throughout the whole story. There were so many emotions, from fear, to sadness, to flirtation that it never really lulled at any point. I felt like it was really easy to follow as well, making it a fun and light read. I wasn't expecting it to be so freaky though! Which in turn was actually a really fun aspect of the book. I liked that it wasn't just a little boo here and there but lived up to the name of the Ghost Hunter's Daughter and all that comes with that title. Although it would have been fun with a little more ghost hunting, I think that the story had a satisfying arc that took you from beginning to end of Anna's journey to discover who she is and where she belongs in this big scary world.

Thankfully there is a happily ever after to look forward to that leaves you with a good happy feeling in the end. I feel like most scary stories always leave you a little unsettled, but that's not the case here and I was grateful for that. I was also grateful that there was some resolution to poor Anna losing her dog. That's one of the saddest things in books with animals is when one of them dies or gets hurt, I can't handle it, but this book deals with the entire situation well and you don't feel that unyielding grief that comes with animals being harmed.

I think that this book definitely will have a certain niche of readers, I know a few of my reading buddies who would not be interested for the mere fact that there is so much about demons, but if that's not something that bothers you, then this is a fun read, especially around Halloween when the ghosts and ghools are out to play!

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The Ghost Hunter's Daughter by Caroline Flarity is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. Wow, this book had me right away and held my interest to the end! I had to read it in one sitting! The story is just what the title says, but more! The girl has had an abnormal life growing up with cursed objects, "tricksters", and demons. One of those demons changed her life. Lots of great paranormal activity and creepy stuff, teen problems, suspense, and friendship. I hope there will be a series out of this! This is going in my favorite folder! So much great supernatural stuff in one book! Yes!

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This is the perfect read for anyone who loves PLL and Supernatural. It’s dark, it’s challenge but it’s oh so brilliant.

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Anna Fagan is the daughter of a ghost hunter and hoarder. She's lost her mother at the hands of a demon and is bullied at school. The town seems to be going down the tubes fast as people start acting angry and violent. Has the demon that killed her mother returned or is it something much worse and can Anna find the courage to do what has to be done to save the town and those she loves?

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Funny and entertaining read. Slow paced at times but even so it was a quick read and I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would.

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Paranormal, horror, and young adult fans unite because this book is for all three! Anna faces tough decisions with her newfound evil power and must fight her own darkness in order to save her town, high school, friends, and family. Definitely a great read for anyone a fan of horror, the paranormal, whether or not you regularly read young adult novels.

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DNF'd at the end of Part One.

I think the premise of this novel is a great idea; I especially like how Anna is trying to balance her school life with her personal life. Some of the major problems I had with this book was the bullying. I understand the author is trying to convey a hardship in Anna's life, it's just too aggressive and vulgar for me to want to continue reading this book.

Another issue I had was with the portrayal of adults. I understand there is a phenomenon affecting the town, but every encounter these kids have with an adult is just cringeworthy. The scene with the gym teacher is especially difficult to read and was downright triggering for me. Anna does recollect her mother in a positive light, but the memory is not enough to balance against the awful adults active in her life.

The writing is lackluster and suffers from telling the audience about something instead of showing it. Anna feels like a caricature of a teenager and most of the other kids seem more of a stereotypical representation than r ees al people.

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The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter tells the story of 16 year old Anna who can see things from the spiritual world. She is still mourning the death of her mother whilst dealing with her fathers new, strange obsession. On top of that something strange is happening to her town and it’s up to her to stop it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from just reading the blurb. It was a quick read and full of interesting characters. It was darker than I expected but I loved that aspect.

I couldn’t connect to Anna, I found her difficult to like and her actions annoyed me at times. Her dad was also infuriating, however intriguing at the same time. I loved that the book tackled the problem of hoarding. Itisn’t something I’ve read about in fiction before, and it was interesting to see how the person and family react and deal with the problem.

Overall, it was an ok story. The beginning was strong but I felt it sagged in the middle and impacted my enjoyment. It was difficult for me to connect to the protagonist but I found the other characters fun and interesting. I think for a debut, it’s pretty good and I think the author has great potential. If you love supernatural stories with dark twists, interesting characters and a fast paced read this is the book for you.

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DNF at 24%

I'm always up for a good haunting, a great ghost story. So when I came across this one on netgalley, I was super excited about it, and even moreso when I got accepted for it. However, I've made the tough decision to DNF this after only a quarter of the way through. I hate DNFing books, espeically e-galleys that I've been approved for, but this one was just lacking for me. There just didn't seem to be anything happening. We have a dad who can't deal with life who is a paranormal investigator, cool, that should make for an interesting storyline but it just didn't gel for me. He hoards countless amounts of stuff so that his daughter is tripping over something every time she turns around in the house. We have Anne who is trying her best to live her life after the death of her mother, while being the town pariah because her father is a ghost hunter, she's known as goblin girl at school, all I was getting from her character was someone who pines after a boy who doesn't care about her and turns on her at the first sign of anything strange, and who is so full of teenage angst it's suffocating. I understand that she lost her mother to a demon, but it just wasn't coming across that way, all that I was getting was angsty teenage bullshit. And when two chapters (there abouts) is focused on the fact that her dog has died and left behind two puppies that she can't keep because her Dad is allergic, so her and her two friends Freddy and Doreen take the puppies out in a basket to find them homes, I just couldn't do it anymore. I was after page turning, haunting ghost story, but I just didn't find it here.

I'm in the minority in my opinion, and for that I'm super grateful, I really really wish that I had have enjoyed this story more as it sounded right up my alley, but alas, some things just aren't meant to be. If you like a ghost story that has a lot deeper themes than just a haunting, give it a go, you might like it :)

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When I read the synopsis for The Ghost Hunter's Daughter, I immediately got excited and had to check it out. This is the story of Anna, whose father is well known for being the town well, ghost hunter, and because of this she is known as Goblin Girl at school. Things start happening in her town during a number of solar flares, things of a paranormal nature, and it's up to Anna to figure it out.

Before I go any further I would caution that there are trigger warnings for bullying, self harm and suicidal thoughts. Though these aren't central themes in the book, there are situations that arise that could be triggering to people.

Ok, now that that's out of the way - this story was so much fun! Yes, it got pretty dark at some points with some of the things discussed (um hello demons and ghosties). If you're looking for something with Poltergeist/Ghostbusters vibes, this will fit the bill.

Anna's struggles are very relatable regardless of the supernatural aspects and influences in the story. It delves a lot into her internal dialogue and talks about how the bullying she endures affects her, as well as other characters and their struggles. While these situations are influenced by the supernatural aspects, they are still very real experiences that teens have and humanized the story a bit more.

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What can to say about the Ghosthunter's Daughter which was my first ever netgalley arc is bloody amazing. There is so much jammed pack into this book. First off we have Anna who lost her mum to a demon and is now known as the goblin girl. Yet Anna has a strong friendship since she was a child with freddy and doreen which can never be challenged which we see later in the book. I've not read many fantasty books but this has now given me a thirst to read some more. I loved Caroline's writing and the way she introduced such topics as hoarding and suicidal thoughts and bullying but were used so well and were not out of context. Through these topics and others we learned something was wrong in bloomtown. I'm not going to give any spoilers but I will say I do hope that we get to see these characters again in a followup. I'm giving this book 5 stars

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The main thrust of the plot was fairly dark and compelling. I found myself racing through the book. I wasn’t a massive fan of Anna but that may be because I am very over teen protagonists who prioritise a boy over the actual thing that needs to be solved. Honestly, the romance in a paranormal mystery should in my opinion be a subplot that enhances the main plot, but then my teen years are far behind me! Overall an enjoyable debut that didn’t flinch from the grosser aspects of human nature – it’s always important in a ghost book to have the paranormal plot reflect the real life issue an MC has to deal with and that’s done well here. Definitely one of the stronger YA paranormal mysteries I’ve read.

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