Slow moving but fun supernatural thriller appealing to fans of shows like Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While it does take some momentum to get the plot moving, there are various subplots that will help fill the time between usual teenage worries about crushes to debating if a best friend needs an exorcism. The landing lacked the oomph to carry the full plot, but the characters show enough strength for a sequel.

As someone who grew up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural I was quite excited for this read. Needless to say it lived up to my expectations and was quite the rollercoaster!
Our main character is Anna, who's life has been turned upside down because of the supernatural. Her mom who was possessed by a demon, in a moment of clarity killed herself to save Anna and her Dad. Anna's Dad has not been the same since, his grief has become out of control and manifests through hoarding. As the story intensifies her Dad issues get worse, and it's not only her Dad who is having problems it seems like the whole town is under a negative spell.
Anna is dealing with other things too, she's constantly bullied because of her father's job as well as other petty teenage reasons.
Things quickly start going badly and there's a nice surprise twist that wraps up the book quite nicely!
I really liked the supernatural elements and lore within the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this for an honest review! :)

Great YA novel about a girl saving her father, friends, and town from evil! I liked the premise of the book. Parts of it (suicide ideation, cutting, thoughts of unworthiness due to evil spirit) were a little heavy of a read and if you are not in a good place mentally, you might need a warning for.

(will review on goodreads and Amazon once released)

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. The Ghosthunter’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.

Anna is tough and opinionated and the narrative is very witty at times. Although her mother’s possession by a demon, her subsequent death, and the fact that Anna can never escape the stigma of her father’s work as a paranormal investigator have hardened her, Anna is believable and I liked her most of the time. The high school Anna and her two best friends, Freddy and Doreen, attend is mean. These kids, and certain teachers, are the type that makes headlines for bullying and sexual assault. The people at school were scarier than the Trickster spirits and Shadow Men that Anna deals with on a semi-regular basis.

Many aspects of the magic system are familiar, such as the use of salt and holy water as supernatural pest prevention. I liked that Anna and her father had to cleanse spirits in accordance to the entity’s own spiritual beliefs, but the best part was the incorporation of a scientific element through Electromagnetic Fields, their effects, and the ways paranormal beings can manipulate them. It’s also refreshing to have characters admit that they don’t know everything, and that there’s no way to find the answers to questions like where demons come from. However, I did find it odd that Jack had to buy holy water when he might’ve been able to get it from a priest instead.

The Ghosthunter’s Daughter also highlights mental health issues through various different characters. Jack’s hoarding is…wow. When Anna went into the basement, I was stunned. As funny as Anna’s bitterly sarcastic jokes about Jack’s Crap are, Flarity still conveys the desperation and compulsivity of Jack’s hoarding with heart-breaking clarity. It’s also damn good to read a book that raises the topic of the negative psychological effects of pornography.

The overall sense of realism in The Ghosthunter’s Daughter, good pacing, and intriguing plot made this a tough novel to put down. I highly recommend it.

I am so grateful to NetGalley and the Publishers, East Side Press, for giving me a copy of The Ghost Hunter's Daughter by Caroline Flarity.

Firstly, I would like to put a Trigger Warning because there are some scenes that could be upsetting to some viewers including: Minor self-harm, extreme thoughts of suicide, sexual assault (groped) on a minor - this last one isn't overly graphic and is a memory that a character has from years prior.

I was really exited to read this book, I love the cover - it is creepy and intriguing at the same time and also ties in slightly to the plot line itself. This book follows Anna whilst she tries to live a mundane teenage life, something that is made extremely difficult by her father who has his own paranormal business. She is called Goblin Girl by her peers at school, but thankfully she has two close friends, Dor and Freddy.

I did have a small love-hate relationship with Anna and her personality, on one side I can see that she acts exactly how she should for her age - but on the other side, I wanted to shake some sense into her. However, this part got smaller and smaller as I got closer to the end as the plot unfolds completely and you realize that not everything is as it seemed!

The plot was amazing and kept me engaged and wanting to know what happened next, the plot is intriguing and the background characters were 'fleshed out' so it felt like they actually added something to the plot rather than just there. I loved the plot arc towards the end which some people may have seen coming, but I personally didn't see the major plot twist coming.

However, one of my favourite character arcs was Anna's, I suppose it's not a character arc as such and more of a 'cleasning'. But some of the sexist behaviour that she is subjected to had me shouting at my kindle, especially from the more senior members of society. But, she definitely redeemed her self from some of her more silly decisions at the end, with a strong AF approach to being your best self.

I received an E-ARC copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, all in all, this was an okay book. It didn't have me falling in love with it, but nor did I hate it either. It was simply okay. One thing I did like about this book was that for the most part, it was really easy to read. I literally flew through it which was great.

But I also had a few problems with this book. Firstly, I wasn't entirely connected to the characters at all. I wasn't drawn to them or interested in their lives.

Also, the story felt more like a collection of different events rather than one cohesive plot line.

In addition to this, I felt like the pacing was a bit off, but what I did appreciate were the few extracts written from the points of view of the other characters - it was definitely interesting to see their perspective but it seemed that these extracts appeared rather sporadically in the text rather than evenly distributed.

And finally, I felt like the actual plot didn't get going until the last fifty or so pages but by then I had lost some of the initial interest I had in this book.

But it was still an okay story, I definitely didn't hate it which is why it sits at 3 stars

Anna Fagan’s mother was possessed and killed by a demon when she was a child. Her father never recovered from the loss and buried himself in his work, the exorcism of ghosts from haunted relics. Anna’s home life is definitely not the norm, but when she see’s people from school going off the deep end she starts to wonder if there’s not something going wrong in her hometown. When her own thoughts start to become murderous, she shies away from her best friends Freddy and Dor and tries to salvage the scraps of her sanity. What she doesn’t realize is that her friends lives are also getting blacker and by the time she realizes it, she’s almost too late to save them.

Anna’s home life was a wreck. Her father was not just a ghost hunter, but he was also a hoarder. His things a labyrinth that blocked light and created an even more creepy atmosphere for the setting of this story. Known as the “Goblin girl” at school because of her dad’s job, Anna struggles to overcome that stigma and her feelings of shame. It’s only because of her best friends support that she had any light in her day. It’s when she becomes fixated on a boy at school and her fixation starts to turn unhealthy that I got an inkling that I might become uncomfortable with the direction this novel was headed.

I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but I kept looking for those moments of light in this story where I’d finally get to start rooting for Anna. There was just so much going on, and all of it was pretty dark and depressing. Anna does realize the town has been taken over by an evil demon and she does overcome all odds to save the day, but that only happens near the end of the book. On my wait for that to happen we see her father advance further into depression and hoardom (is that a word?), her friends become suicidal, and the bully at school turn into being bullied (by Anna!). Not to disrespect this author because I could see the work she put into it, but it really just wasn’t for me.

I am a huge fan of urban fantasy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. and I went into this with my eyes wide open, hoping for the best. If there had been a few more kernels of light or humor I think my feelings would have been different. I will say that I do believe every book has it’s reader and I just wasn’t a good fit for The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter. If you like creepy fantasy-type novels The Ghost Hunter’s Daughter may be the right fit for you, so please give it a try.

I received a free ARC of this novel through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so amazingly good.
I was not expecting it to be so creepy and suspenseful!
I quickly got sucked into this book the plot is fast paced and the writing style is amazing!
The descriptions of everything in the book were so clear and vivid I felt like a movie was playing in my mind!
If you love mystery thriller books then you need to pick this one up as soon as possible!
4 stars.

I love all things ghosts and ghouls but unfortunately this wasn't for me.
My main problem with this book is that I couldn't connect with the main character Anna and I found her to be unlikeable even at the best of times. I sympathised with her in regards to her fathers hoarding and her mothers death but the way she discarded her supposed best friends, even if it was because of demon intervention, it didn't make me want to root for her.

Also … why'd you gotta kill the dog dude?

For a teen\YA novel this story dives into dark subject matter that might not be for teens. The book will suck readers in with it twisted tail of mystery and understanding of one self.

The Ghost Hunters Daughter is length, speed, and darkness for the subject matter ad audience who are looking to read this book.

As a debut novels Caroline Flarity will have readers needing more as soon as they put down her book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher East Side Press for the advance copy of Caroline Flarity The Ghost Hunter's Daughter.

The writing style for this book turned me away. There was a lot of repetition per page which distracted me from the actual story. I ended up DNF-ing this one.

In an industry where a lot of YA intentionally targets adults, it's comforting to read a novel truly speaks to teens. Don't get me wrong: The supernatural elements in THE GHOST HUNTER'S DAUGHTER make this a fantastic guilty pleasure read for adults -- but the way Flarity expresses the desire to learn more about who you are and where you belong makes this a must-read for teens -- especially girls.

Anna waked up to a world that is literally fallen to the demons. What happens when a teenage girl has to face her demons and those of the past as well? This is a book that started slow for me but eventually is started picking up the pace and held on. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

Enjoyed this but felt largely was aimed more at a younger YA market than I’d usually read. Fast paced and fun. The MC is a bit irritating at first but you do warm to her as the story goes on. Covers bullying and grief in a sensitive manner. An enjoyable read

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

3.75 stars.

It was okay but I was expecting more out of it since it started off great. I was expecting there to be more investigations but the book was more focused on the characters' emotions and psychology. The writing style was good but I found the nicknames for stuff to be a bit on the cringey side. But then again it was in the point of view of a high school student.

Now the story is about a girl named Anna and she's the daughter of a ghost hunter who, after his wife died, has a very serious case of hoarding. She's being mocked in school about her father's job and she started being embarrassed to be seen with him. But of course weird things started to happen and she's thrown in the middle of it and is the only one who figures out and solves the paranormal mystery in the end with some help. So in the end, she doesn't care what people thinks and starts liking being a ghost hunter.

What I liked about the book is the character development of Anna. In the beginning she is a bit unlikable (at least to me, she was) but becomes better in the end. Freddy and Geneva are my faves. I like nerdy characters.
I also love what the author incorporated into the paranormal activity that was happening in town. I found it to be unique.
The descriptions in the story is really good but from the very beginning towards close to the end, things just keep on spiralling down without any uplift. I found it to be somewhat exhausting. The ending was the only happy moment in the book with very minimal tiny happiness placed here and there.


TW for some pedophilia, and bullying. Also a sicko with dark and sick perversions.

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

A light, fun read! Definitely recommended for teens which means that I’m not the target demographic but I still enjoyed this. The author delivers a rapid-paced, suspenseful, well-written and perfectly executed fantasy you won’t be able to put down.

This short novel is a quick read that sucks you in and keeps you in its grasps until you finish it.

I requested a copy of this book on netgalley because I was really in the mood to read something that satisfied my guilty pleasure for paranormal YA. This book did just that; 13 year old me would have been in love!

This book explores some interesting themes such as grief, bullying and has multiple characters who care for their parent in one way or another. Although at times there are some situations that are not handled as they should be and do not appear to hold the weight they should have (the video), the book overall tells an interesting narrative with a complex main character and interesting surrounding characters. Most of the characters featured in the narrative are well fleshed out and have their own personality rather than just being the side-kick or bad guy.

I gave this three stars because whilst I thought the book was good, I do not think that I am the target demographic. The plot was interesting and original (at least I haven't read something similar) and I read this in a couple of sittings. As the novel is relatively short there was always something to pull you in and make you read on in almost every chapter which made me want to come back to it and finish it. Overall, I am glad I read this book, I feel like it has pulled me out of a reading slump and definitely satisfied my need for some paranormal fiction.

I received a free copy of THE GHOST HUNTER’S DAUGHTER by Caroline Flarity, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Anna Fagan is a social outcast with only two close friends. Anna, who witnessed her mother’s murder, has more problems than her high school classmates calling her “Goblin Girl.” Though Anna’s dad is a famous ghost hunter celebrated for his innovations in the field, he’s a wreck in private; his hoarding’s spilling out of the house and onto the lawn. However, when the high school hijinks turn even crueler than usual, Anna begins to suspect there’s a larger problem than teenagers being teenagers. Can Anna figure out what’s going on before she loses her two friends, what’s left of her family, and her self-respect, or will Anna become a victim of her own dark impulses?

This was an interesting book. It was pretty dark. Anna is damaged from her past and lives in a pretty grim environment with no support from her remaining parent. Moreover, Anna has to face the derision and abuse of her classmates on daily basis. Anna’s entire world is already so dark, she’s the only one to notice when the little remaining light begins to disappear. In trying to save her town, she manages to save herself.

🤯🤯🤯

This book was beyond amazing, it was spooky and creepy and absolutely hooked me.

I wish I could read this book for the first time again and again.

3.75 dark stars, willingly given

The blurb to #theghosthuntersdaugher sounded intriguing but I wasn't really sure what to expect. It's good, then, that #NetGalley and the publisher East Side Press gave me the opportunity to have a look at this short book. Even the amazing cover already suggest that goosebumps-inducing hours lay ahead for me, but - heck - this is one dark story and not just because of the supernatural elements. Who would have thought? Do not let the main character's age and circumstances (high school) fool you. I would go as far and say this book needs a trigger warning, as cases of sexual pedophilic(ish) assault and self-harm are treated in this book. I must say I loved the sinister atmosphere of the book. The author made the world come alive vividly and it helped me to get sucked into this book. Usually, mystery and thriller are not on top of my genre-list but this obviously needs to change! So, let's dive into this book.

To most people, teenager Anna is known as Goblin Girl. Her Dad Jack, supernaturalist expert on everything that could even remotely be creepy, hunts ghosts, shadow people and demons for a living and is undeniably one weird character. Ever since his wife Helen's death - inflicted on her by a demon that possessed her - his hoarding has gone out of control and self-care doesn't seem to be a top priority on his agenda either. He also appears to be a bit out of date, as Anna frequently reminds him of: "There is a thing, Dad, a research tool you may not have heard of. It's called the internet." As someone whose dad still asks about "this google", I can relate 100%. Although I am pretty confident my dad's awkwardness would never result in "social death", something, Anna swears frequently, her Dad would be easily capable of by expanding his "business".

Anyhow, the weariness of the townspeople and her peers and the burden to be the one to keep Jack's sense for reality in check lie heavy on Anna's shoulders. This only adds to the hard life of a high schooler that gets taunted day in day out by her peers. Things with her friends aren't ideal at the moment either, and they keep getting worse. Just like everything else in this god-forsaken town seems to spindle down the moral scale about 50 m/h. This can't be normal, can it? Sure, teenagers are among the cruellest beings on earth, but the reader can't help noticing that things are getting increasingly hostile around town. Anna herself can't keep from snapping at her friends and forsaking them for the school musician and douche Craig and having hostile urges that are just a tad too violent to be regular emotional outlets. Supported by her dad's new assistant Genevieve, a hippie but hot PhD that has invented a special EMF detector that is supposed to seriously up their game, Anna starts digging and doing some research. And sure enough, there are bigger powers at work. And they are, for sure, not good.

Before closing this review, I would like to get back to the beginning of my review and draw special attention to a couple of quotes. Now, sit down, because I almost screamed out loud when reading this. There is this instant when "...Pickens pulled Sydney on his lap [and] she smiled at him, conditioned as she was to be a good girl and not hurt anyone's feelings." Serious groping on his part was involved shortly after, accompanied by panicked looks from Sidney. Sidney, Anna and Dor do what they can and group up against Pickens and tell Sidney's dad about, and "He looked at her with hard eyes. "Boys will be boys.", he said." Nooo, he didn't, you might think. It's his own daughter, you argue. Well, Duh, but MEN WILL BE MEN, won't they? It is clearly intended to add to the eerie feeling of the story and even though this is not discussed explicitly further, the author clearly criticizes this and other flaws of today's sexist, victim-blaming patriarchic society. To close this sexist rant with a couple of encouraging words for anyone who is tortured by average gobeshytes or even their S.O. who is SO NOT worth it by the Goblin Girl Anna herself: "Let's leave that jerk in the trash where he belongs."

Just about over 200 pages, this author did a very good job developing the story and speeding it up just in time to not make me wonder when the actual action would start. I had a bit of trouble getting in touch with Anna sometimes, but this is definitely owed to the fact that I am about a decade older than her and could probably still relate a little too much to the annoying stupidity of teenagers. "Over the summer, she and Craig shared music and chatted online, and since junior year started a few weeks ago, they'd flirted in the hallways, exchanging a few heat-inducing glances." I am pretty sure anybody my age knows exactly, that by "heat-inducing glances" between teenagers pretty much translate to smug but awkward staring. Also, Anna's character traits are badly influenced by the forces at work, so that excuses the action that made me want to squeeze her neck just a little too tight *insert creepy smiley here*.
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Writing Quality + ease of reading = 4*

pace = 3* (At about 25% I was getting worried the highly expected thrills would not kick in)

plot development = 3,5*

characters = 4* (yes, I'm sorry, teenager are exhausting and yeeees I knew from the beginning what I was getting into...)

enjoyability = 4* (This book was so deliciously sinister, know I want MORE)

insightfulness = 4* (there were some very serious issues tackled here and I actually liked that the flaws of today's sexist society were put on display so many times, because PEOPLE NEED TO HEAR THIS)
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This eArc was provided by the publisher East Side Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.