I'm on a bit of a roll this weekend, finishing two books, both of which came to me from the Amazon Vine program. While there were a few minor quibbles with Ghost Huntress: The Awakening by Marley Gibson, it is overall a good entry into the paranormal sci-fi young adult market and I feel confident in recommending it. I just saw, however, that the recommendation is for ages 12 and up, and I'd have to think a bit about that since there is quite a bit of cursing and couple of serious make-out sessions (but that's all they are). I'm copying and pasting the review I posted on Amazon below. Give this one a try; it's pretty fun.~taminator40
Ghost Huntress: The Awakening, is the first entry into a new series that follows sixteen year old Kendall Moorehead as she moves from her home in Chicago to a rural town in Georgia. Not long after she moves into her new home, she begins to realize something odd is going on, not just around her but also within; she can sense other people's thoughts and pains, and she's beginning to hear odd sounds in her room. A chance meeting with a local New Age businesswoman helps Kendall to understand that she's experiencing an awakening of her psychic abilities, so Kendall can now add extrasensory perception/sensing the dead to her list of things to worry about, along with making new friends and fitting in at her new high school.
Kendall, while perplexed at the odd things happening to her, embraces her newfound gift with gusto and decides she must confront the ghost currently living in her house, as well as the one menacing her father's workplace. It isn't long before she conveniently finds some new friends who are interested in the paranormal, and together the four girls form the Ghost Huntresses. With Jason, twin of Ghost Huntress Taylor, the group acquires expensive equipment through the wallet of wealthy Celia and proceed to find and kick ectoplasmic butt.
Ms. Gibson has done her homework, that's for sure; she has her teen paranormal investigators using the correct equipment and following standard debunking procedures. As a person with some interest in paranormal investigation, I really appreciated that the author was giving out accurate information. The references to popular television shows that feature ghost hunters are accurate as well, and the characters are realistically written teenagers who battle not only the not-crossed-over but hormones, too. It was a little convenient to have Kendall luck out with the friends and the money aspect, but this is tempered by her mother's very mom-like response to having a daughter who suddenly claims to have psychic abilities. Though the title is Ghost Huntress, this is actually a mesh of Ghost Hunters, Medium, and Ghost Whisperer; the amount of activity experienced by the group is just too good to be true for amateurs, but it does hold your interest well. There's also a lot of New Age/crystals/protection going on, which does make it seem a little scattered in focus. But this is a fast read that sets out to entertain and that it does quite well. I'll be looking for the second book, The Guidance, when it appears later this year.
