{"id":1919,"date":"2019-11-14T02:43:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T07:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=1919"},"modified":"2019-10-20T02:48:13","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T06:48:13","slug":"book-review-the-ghost-hunters-daughter-by-caroline-flarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=1919","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Ghost Hunter\u2019s Daughter by Caroline Flarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

**Cross Posted from the Monster Librarian Circulation Desk.**<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

The Ghost Hunter\u2019s Daughter<\/em>\u00a0by Caroline Flarity<\/p>\n

East Side Press, 2019<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 978-0996845007<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anna Fagan lives in a haunted house, but that\u2019s the least of her problems. Her father, Jack, is well-known for his ability to \u201cclear\u201d spirits from the objects they haunt, but since the traumatic death of her mother, his ability is fading and he\u2019s picked up the habit of hoarding, aggressively. He stores holy water in the refrigerator, and \u201ccleared\u201d objects in the basement, where Anna is forbidden to go (the results of Jacks\u2019s hoarding exposed when Anna breaks into the basement later in the story is one of the most appalling things in the book: previously haunted objects are the least of the problems).\u00a0 Now the lack of space has led Jack to rent an office to reinvigorate his business. He has hired a new investigator, Geneva Sanders, a scientist who has invented a new way to see the electrical activity that indicates that ghosts and supernatural forces are at work.<\/p>\n

Anna is also suffering from grief and guilt over her mother\u2019s death, but at school, she has other problems. With the exception of her friends Doreen and Freddy, Anna is mocked by other students with the nickname \u201cGoblin Girl\u201d. Izzy, the school sleazebucket, has decided she\u2019d make a perfect target for his meanness and slut-shaming, while also throwing disgusting homophobic slurs at Freddy. Anna, focused on getting her crush, Craig, to notice her, while trying to manage her family problems and an uptick in paranormal activity, misses out on the serious problems Doreen and Freddy are dealing with. As levels of hostility and violence rise in town, Geneva theorizes that unusual solar flares are being harnessed by a malevolent spirit who is using them to feed on people\u2019s anger and pain.<\/p>\n

Flarity\u2019s choice to make Anna the point-of-view character works beautifully here. There is so much going on in this book, especially in the larger picture of things, and yet we see that world through the self-centered tunnel vision of a teenager\u2013 which is perfect for a teenager in a YA novel. Our view widens with hers, and we see the story pull together as she does. Getting the story from Anna\u2019s point of view means we are up close to her character growth.<\/p>\n

This book reminds me a lot of Lois Duncan\u2019s YA books, except that her books didn\u2019t have the broader supernatural conspiracy behind this story. I\u2019m not sure how many boys would choose to read this, but I hope they will, because there are parts that should really make them think. How many people say and do things without thinking, especially when they are angry or feeling hopeless, that regret it later?<\/p>\n

Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contains: suicide, suicidal ideation, mental illness (hoarding), self-harm, animal cruelty, bullying, abusive adults, violence, cyberbullying. rape culture, distribution of provocative images of a minor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

**Cross Posted from the Monster Librarian Circulation Desk.** The Ghost Hunter\u2019s Daughter\u00a0by Caroline Flarity East Side Press, 2019 ISBN-13: 978-0996845007 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition   Anna Fagan lives in a haunted house, but that\u2019s the least of her problems. Her father, Jack, is well-known for his ability to \u201cclear\u201d spirits from the objects they haunt, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[110,18,123,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-angelsdemons","category-book-reviews","category-ghosts","category-ya-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-uX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1920,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}