Sixteen-year-old Anna is having a tough time at school, often known as ‘Zombie Girl’, because she has a prominent scar on her face and a father with a really odd job. He is a type of ghost hunter (or exorcist) and specialises more in ‘cleaning’ haunted objects, rather than ghosts. They struggle to pay the bills and Anna still reflects on the death of her mother eight years earlier and the fact that her soul may be stuck in spiritual limbo and might still be possessed by a demon. I thought this novel cleverly balanced its supernatural story with the normal trials and tribulations of a teenage girl who comes from a weird family. Anna has two good friends she can count on (Freddy and Dor) but has a major crush on a boy from school which plays an important part in the story.

As well as covering stuff like social media shaming, bullying and peer pressure the supernatural angle builds nicely as the plot develops. As Anna is her dad’s assistant she is bullied at school, but at the same time strange stuff does seem to be happening which many people believe is because of a rare solar storm which will light up the night sky. Anna is an engaging character, she is not perfect, makes a lot of wrong decisions, but nobody is perfect and is an engaging lead character who shines when the chips are down. A great combination of school life, teenage angst and a few demons. An excellent read for teenagers aged 13+

YA is not a genre I normally read - mainly because I'm not the target audience anymore, but I like to make exceptions every once in a while when something catches my eyes. I've come across The Ghost Hunter's Daughter on Netgalley and as I had a bit of free time on my hands, I requested it - of course I've got a load of books later on... but that's my form. Anyway, I more or less knew what I was getting into with this one, but decided that some lighter read wouldn't hurt after some epic fantasy tomes. All that said, while I enjoyed reading The Ghost Hunter's Daughter, it didn't make me crave to read more YA in the near future.

Our MC is 16 years old Anna, who lives with his father, the paranormal investigator Jack. Who, ever since losing his wife 8 years ago had become a hoarder. One of the things I really appreciated in The Ghost Hunter's Daughter is that it dealt with topics like grief and mental illness - to a point. Anna has no idea how to handle the situation, but then that's not something a 16 year old necessarily has to know anyway. Then again, fighting demons and evil spirits aren't in the average 16 year old's daily routine either.

I have ambivalent feelings toward Anna. On one hand, she has to act like an adult - no wonder, having a parent like Jack - and on the other, she acts like a typical annoying teenager. She has a crush on the most popular guy in school - of course. She also has two friends - surprise, surprise - Freddy and Dor. To make the usual trope complete, they have or don't have crushes on each other, which of course creates tension between the characters. Personally I would have been OK not having this plotline as it didn't really give anything to the story overall. It was cute - or annoying depending on your POV, but nothing more. Her friends being pissed at her for being distant and selfish was much more believable than the teen love drama. As Freddy and Dor had their own very real problems with life and their parents. More focus on that rather than the school perverts would have been benefitial for this story in my opinion.

Thankfully this is was only a sideplot, and not the main focus. Which is, to say, a demon wreaking havoc in the boring town of rural Bloomtown. Jack not being the most reliable figure, it's up to Anna to deal with the chaos and figure out who is behind things. Her only real help is Geneva, her dad's new assistant, inventor, hippie. She kind of reminded me of Phoebe from Friends by her description. With her tool and presence Anna finally can get to the bottom of things.

Now, not many people knows this about me, but I like to watch paranormal investigation shows on TV when I catch them. I can't say I believe in ghosts, spirits, entities or whatever you want to call them, but I'm fascinated by these shows nonetheless. Just because I never had experiences like that, it doesn't mean others' aren't valid. In all honesty, I think this was what really attracted me in The Ghost Hunter's Daughter. I hoped for some cool investigation with spooky events and experiences. Sure, I knew there was teen drama to get with YA, but I hoped it won't be too much.

I probably would have liked more to have a villain with a more interesting motivation/background. Take for example the box Anna uses to get revenge on the school bully - now, that was a nasty piece, and actually I found that spirit or whatever it was more interesting than the actual evil antagonist. Even if it the revelation of who it pretended to be was a nice twist. I expected someone else to be the culprit. And it had some tricks himself as it turned out in the final confrontation.

Okay, I went a bit overly critical here. In all fairness, The Ghost Hunter's Daughter is a solid and entertaining read. Being the debut of Caroline Flarity, I think it has good potential. All in all, it mostly delivered what I expected: a fast paced, sometimes spooky read with a bit of teen drama. If you like ghost hunter stories, evil spirits wreaking havoc in a little town playing mindgames on people, with teen angst and love drama on the side, then I'm sure you will enjoy The Ghost Hunter's Daughter.

That was big!
I'm speechless actually, this book really brought out strong emotions!
Highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this title. This was a ok read for me; it was more about bullying then ghost hunting. There were some scary scenes but not too scary for a YA.

DNF--there was nothing wrong with it, exactly, but there was no tension. A lot of descriptions and a lot of stereotypical high school characters. Not worth the time it would take to finish reading it.

DNF. This just felt strange and immature and not what I was expecting. It felt more like a teenager's first draft than an almost-published book by an adult. I think the target audience needs to be aged down to middle grade

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book. As a person with mental illness, I struggled to appreciate the depiction of the MC's father as a hoarder. It felt harsh and it did not seem to me as though the author had appropriate insight into the subject matter. This is not a book that I would recommend to others, particularly since the shop I work for is specifically social justice oriented.

Anna is no ordinary girl. Her father is the town specialist on all things paranormal which doesn't do Anna any good as everyone calls her Goblin Girl. Plus her mother was possessed by a demon and died because of it. And now something weird is happening in Bloomtown and people are acting crazy. It falls to Anna to get to the bottom of things while navigating high school and a crush.

It was a nice read which might appeal to fans of Supernatural and Ghostbusters.as it has a very similar subject and overall slightly creepy vibe.

Rating: 4/5
ARC: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure how to summarize this book. There's so much to be said, but I'm going to keep it simple: Anna, annoyed by her father's hoarding issues, the fact that he isn't trying to contact her late mother, and his chosen profession of being a ghost hunter, realizes that something's she wrong with the people in this town. Everyone's angry, mean, and doing things they might not otherwise do. And Anna is going to do something about it.

I debated about my rating. Part of me wants to give it a 5/5 because I enjoyed it a lot, but another part of me wants to give it a 3/5 because there was something missing. I can't put my finger on what bothers me, so perhaps I'll update this review at a later time. I went with a happy medium of 4/5, and feel good with that decision.

Anna was a difficult character for me to get into her head, and I'm not sure why. She was interesting, determined, smart, brave, a little reckless, and very oblivious. I was cheering for her throughout the book though, and was relieved she got a happy ending that she deserves.

I really liked the cast in this book: Dor, Freddy, Jack and the way he was crushing on his super smart, kind new employee. I despised Craig, and was a little upset that Anna seemed to not be so angry with him at the end of it all. I hope Izzy gets help, because oooof. What a creepy character. Made my skin crawl.

The evil being in this book spooked me. It felt very real, and very scary. I'm impressed with how it was handled.

This book really should come with a long list of content warnings though for: s/xual assault, ab/se, add/ction, mental health issues, homophobia, bullying, hoarding, cheating, su/cide, car crash, death of a parent, non-consensual release of private video ... just to name a few. I feel as though most of these issues were wrapped up and treated with care by the end. The bad people got theirs in the end, and that was satisfying.

I'd definitely recommend this book to a friend, with a head's up for all the issues it tackles, and let them know it's worth it: the found family coming together, the strong friendships that bring one another support and strength, the satisfaction of the villain being defeated, and the soft scene at the end.

After considering everything, I feel good about my 4/5 rating. I'm not sure what I felt was missing, but I'll update this review if I figure it out.

I picked this book mostly because of the title. I love a good ghost story! But I have to say even though I quickly scanned over the summary it took me by surprise. In a good way!

I was expecting a story about a girl going ghost hunting with her father and their adventures along the way. But I was so wrong, it’s not about that at all.

The story is about Anna, a teenage girl who lost her mother at a young age to a demon possession. Her father Jack, a plumber by trade,  took on the job of clearing haunted objects after her mother passed and also tried to find a way to communicate with her mother in the after life. All of this makes Anna a social outcast with only two close friends.

At first Anna doesn’t really notice anything strange going on, her dad has always been a bit weird. He's become a hoarder over the years and their house is cluttered with "Jack's Crap" as Anna likes to call it. So his odd behaviour doesn’t immediately ring a bell. But when she notices her friends acting strange, her classmates becoming murderous and she doesn't even recognise her own erratic behaviour at times, she begins to suspect something else is going on.

She’s going to have to figure out what is going on and how to stop it. But will she be able to? Can she do it on her own? Or can she rely on her friends to help her even though their friendship starts to unravel?

Besides the paranormal story line this book touches on mental health issues, teenage angst and fitting in the social norm as well as finding who you truly are. It’s pretty well written. The story flows and it made me want to continue reading .

While it is not your typical ghost story, but I have to say I really enjoyed this approach to ghosts and demons. It has a different take on the existing paranormal stories out there but it uses what appear to be normal standards in the paranormal research world such as EMF. Which makes for a believable read that doesn’t require a lot of imagination to make it work.

So, even though I expected something completely different (which is entirely my own fault) I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I think it's easy to relate to some of the issues addressed in the book. Things all of us experience at some point in our lives.

Rating 4/5

A very good novel, well written and entertaining.
It's a good mix of YA, fantasy and horror with some very creepy moments.
I liked the characters, the plot and the setting.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I received a copy of the Ghost Hunter's Daughter compliments of NetGalley.

Firstly, the name of the book along with the description is what intrigued me first. Loving Supernatural and Ghost Investigations reality show like Paranormal Lockdown I couldn't say the request for this book. Boy am I glad I pressed that button.

Let's start off with that the story revolves around Anna aka the Goblin Girl who in fact is the Ghost Hunters Daughter. Something is happening to the townspeople without them knowing it and in the end, they have to fight an old villain.

So Anna is the typical teenager with two besties a dad that is weird and new lady coming to the playing table. Anna not only has to fight the typical teenage battles of things like a boy she likes, girls being mean and one stupid head in class that is just a stupid head. She also has to fight outer enemies along with some interesting things that are happening at home. I think I would not be able to deal with, my OCD will be in overdrive.

The one thing I do love is the EMI. I wish and hope that the paranormal reality shows will get something like that, cause that will be a game changer.

The Ghost Hunters Daughter had just the right amount of fright along with a splash of suspense and a few plot twist I did not see coming.

If you love YA suspense / thriller / horror than this is a must.

I really enjoyed this book and give it a
★★★★ out 5 stars

This was definitely an interesting book. All sorts of spooky ghosts and other things that go bump in the night. It was a little fast paced, I felt as if there should have been time for plots to develop and play out, as well as characters.

Honestly, the writing is good and its an interesting concept but I am just not enjoying it. I think if I stuck with it and saw to the end I would end up liking it more but it's just too dark and negative for me right now. And normally I don't have a problem with that; I've read plenty of darker books. But there's just not enough light or levity mixed in with it. It's unbalanced. I didn't finish it but it's something I might consider finishing later.

If you enjoy the supernatural you will enjoy this book it was a very enjoyable book for anyone to read!

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.