YA Novels about Teen Ghost Hunters...

WalpurgisQuill · Mar 31, 2012

So, I've been working on my novel for a while now, and I've been trying to stay far away from influence. My book is about teen ghosthunters trying to get rid of a townwide ghost problem they pretty much caused, and I can't think of anything else to compare it to. Not that I want to compare, but since I'm pretty stuck, I want to see how other authors have handled teenage ghost hunters, just to see what's already been done before.

Problem... I can't personally find any YA novels or even short stories having to do with teen ghost hunters (I do remember seeing one at the library about a girl ghost hunter, but it wasn't really what I was looking for.) Especially in the way I'm doing them.

Can you guys give me any suggestions? I don't know if there's a very big market for people looking for YA ghost hunting novels (not manuals, I know there's a gigantic market for those.) Thanks!

TudorRose · Mar 31, 2012

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake came out quite recently. Male MC

Torgo · Apr 1, 2012

Jonathan Stroud has just announced a new series along these lines.

Saanen · Apr 1, 2012

Mara Purnhagen has a series where the main character's parents are ghost hunters and she helps them. The series starts with Past Midnight, which is by far the best of the books.

Becca C. · Apr 1, 2012

The Name of the Star was a lot of fun to read. I recommend it.

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 1, 2012

Thank you all very much for your suggestions, fellow writers! These look brilliant and I will check them out. However, being that there is nothing I can find that resembles my story (there's a LOT more than I described) I feel like I may have stumbled on to a mostly original idea, and this makes me kind of happy.

Becca C. · Apr 1, 2012

Hooray for original ideas!

meowzbark · Apr 1, 2012

This may be a little out of the ballpark, but your post made me think of the TV series Ghostwriter. A bunch of kids solve mysteries with the help of a ghost. One of my favorite series growing up.

convoyrider · Apr 2, 2012

it also sounds like scooby doo. but that's beside the point. Doesn't really matter what it resembles as long as it's done in a unique and engaging way.

Stiger05 · Apr 2, 2012

meowzbark said:
This may be a little out of the ballpark, but your post made me think of the TV series Ghostwriter. A bunch of kids solve mysteries with the help of a ghost. One of my favorite series growing up.

Aaahh!! I loved that show! A group of teen sleuths with a ghost helper who wrote about it? Childhood heaven.

The others had good suggestions. You shouldn't be able to find anything exactly like yours; that means you have a fresh take. Read the things that are similar to get an idea of what's out there and use them as a guide. Then, if you decide to compare your book to something, you have knowledge of the market. For instance, I couldn't find anything that close to mine, but if I had to describe it based on what's already out there, I would say it's "Heist Society" meets "X Men."

Becca C. · Apr 2, 2012

Stiger05 said:
For instance, I couldn't find anything that close to mine, but if I had to describe it based on what's already out there, I would say it's "Heist Society" meets "X Men."

Not picking on you at all, but it seems like soooo many YA pitches involve "_____ meets X Men." I know I've seen quite a few, in QLH but also from Publisher's Marketplace and stuff. I wonder what exact elements from X Men makes something else sound so appealing. A band of weirdos? Does just having one or two different powers merit an X Men comparison? It's just funny.

Stiger05 · Apr 2, 2012

Becca C. said:
Not picking on you at all, but it seems like soooo many YA pitches involve "_____ meets X Men." I know I've seen quite a few, in QLH but also from Publisher's Marketplace and stuff. I wonder what exact elements from X Men makes something else sound so appealing. A band of weirdos? Does just having one or two different powers merit an X Men comparison? It's just funny.

I don't use it in a query or anything. I just couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head that involved different people having different special abilities (telekinesis, electrokinesis, teleportation, etc), that are genetic. My characters aren't witches, or mutants, or bitten by radioactive spiders, or experiments gone wrong. They're just special families. X Men is the closest I could think of, although I'm all ears if someone knows of a better comparison, just in case I'm ever asked.

thebloodfiend · Apr 2, 2012

Stiger05 said:
I don't use it in a query or anything. I just couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head that involved different people having different special abilities (telekinesis, electrokinesis, teleportation, etc), that are genetic. My characters aren't witches, or mutants, or bitten by radioactive spiders, or experiments gone wrong. They're just special families. X Men is the closest I could think of, although I'm all ears if someone knows of a better comparison, just in case I'm ever asked.

Doom Patrol sounds a bit more original, IMO. Or Young Justice. I'd steer clear of any X-Men or Teen Titans comparisons.

Chazemataz · Apr 2, 2012

There's Project 17, which was a great book but more about teen drama than ghost hunting.

totopink · Apr 2, 2012

meowzbark said:
This may be a little out of the ballpark, but your post made me think of the TV series Ghostwriter. A bunch of kids solve mysteries with the help of a ghost. One of my favorite series growing up.

I remember a TV show when I was young called The Ghost Hunter about this man that trapped ghosts and these human kids tried to save the ghosts from the ghost hunter.

Apparently ghosts make good tv

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 2, 2012

Stiger05 said:
]

The others had good suggestions. You shouldn't be able to find anything exactly like yours; that means you have a fresh take. Read the things that are similar to get an idea of what's out there and use them as a guide. Then, if you decide to compare your book to something, you have knowledge of the market. For instance, I couldn't find anything that close to mine, but if I had to describe it based on what's already out there, I would say it's "Heist Society" meets "X Men."

My problem is that I can't find anything similar, really. And you'd have to mix and match a lot of things to get within passing note of mine, it looks like. I've yet to be disproved on this.

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 2, 2012

Chazemataz said:
There's Project 17, which was a great book but more about teen drama than ghost hunting.

I just looked this book up. It actually sounds really good.

Nogetsune · Apr 3, 2012

Ghost hunters, hmm? By "ghost hunters" do you mean actual teenage paranormal investigators who operate in a manner similar to TAPs and other real life paranormal investigation groups? Or do you mean something more like the ghost busters, with advance, si-fi tech used to hunt/capture ghosts and such? If the former it is highly advisable that you study up on paranormal investigation and, if possible, see if you can tag along with local paranormal investigation teams or at the least have them tell you how they operate.

Also, one of my concepts for a YA series was actually focused around a group of teenage paranormal investigators, though they did not deal exclusively with ghosts. However, that concept as of now is stuck in limbo while I decide which of my ideas I want to put to pen(I have so many concepts and yet so little time to write...collage can be a cruel mistress.), but it is nice to see somebody else interested in the idea of teenage paranormal investigators. That area has a lot of untapped potential in YA and needs more love.

Also, yes, I am new here.

Sage · Apr 3, 2012

:Welcome: Ryukami. And I would love to see some TAPS-like ghost hunters in YA

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 3, 2012

Ryukami said:
Ghost hunters, hmm? By "ghost hunters" do you mean actual teenage paranormal investigators who operate in a manner similar to TAPs and other real life paranormal investigation groups? Or do you mean something more like the ghost busters, with advance, si-fi tech used to hunt/capture ghosts and such? If the former it is highly advisable that you study up on paranormal investigation and, if possible, see if you can tag along with a local paranormal investigation teams or at the least have them tell you how they operate.

Also, one of my concepts for a YA series was actually focused around a group of teenage paranormal investigators, though they did not deal exclusively with ghosts. However, that concept as of now is stuck in limbo while I decide which of my ideas I want to put to pen(I have so many concepts and yet so little time to write...collage can be a cruel mistress.), but it is nice to see somebody else interested in the idea of teenage paranormal investigators. That area has a lot of untapped potential in YA and needs more love.

Also, yes, I am new here.

Ghost hunters, as in TAPS-like paranormal investigators, yes. And yeah, I've always been interested in it. As a younger teen, I explored it with a few others myself.

I definitely know how to "ghost hunt" in real life.

Welcome to AW!

Nogetsune · Apr 3, 2012

That's good to know. If your writing something you should, after all, have some degree of knowledge on it. My paranormal investigation story was far more "si-fi/fantasy" in tone but based on the real life paranormal rather then total fantasy. It featured criptids, psychic powers, aliens and, yes, ghosts..it was very much a "paranormal kitchen sink" but not all at once. It was designed for an episodic investigation type format, though if I peruse it I may ditch the episodic focus entirely and focus it on one or a few aspects of the paranormal.

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 3, 2012

Ryukami said:
That's good to know. If your writing something you should, after all, have some degree of knowledge on it. My paranormal investigation story was far more "si-fi/fantasy" in tone but based on the real life paranormal rather then total fantasy. It featured criptids, psychic powers, aliens and, yes, ghosts..it was very much a "paranormal kitchen sink" but not all at once. It was designed for an episodic investigation type format, though if I peruse it I may ditch the episodic focus entirely and focus it on one or a few aspects of the paranormal.

I've always thought that people should learn new things for the sake of learning them, so that's why I got into it. Luckily, I had my inspiration from all of that, so it works out nicely.

What's your book? And you should do that. As you said, I believe, that subject has a lot of potential.

Nogetsune · Apr 10, 2012

I don't have a title for it yet since It's just concept work. I've been focusing on my dystopian fantasy which I call "Dragonspeaker" more, but I've kinda hit a rut with that story due to a certain aspect of the story that was meant to be minor starting to slowly dominate it and piles and piles of schoolwork/big end of term papers. So needless to say most of the writing I have been doing lately has been of the non-fiction, academic variety. However, the story's setting was initially made for a sort of episodic style of writing, kinda like a more mature Nancy Drew where each book the team would be investigating a new paranormal event.

There was a loose frame of an overarching story I had planned which involved a conflict with the Illuminati among other things, but I was mostly focused on the episodic format. However, I am starting to think that the episodic format may not be the best way to go, and if I flesh out the idea more I'll probally move to making the focus more on the Illuminati conflict and probably focus the paranormal investigation more on just aliens and conspiracies rather then aliens + ghosts + criptids + whatever else passes into my insane mind.

Or likewise, I could focus it more on criptids or one of the other areas. I always found cryptozoology to be interesting and the idea of "monster hunters" was always appealing to me ever since I was in elementary school and was drawing monsters before I could draw people. Like I said, the concept is very mailable right now because it's just a concept, there is no book yet and I've yet to even write anything on it, I've been more focused on "Dragonspeaker" and school right now.

mellymel · Apr 10, 2012

This doesn't help now but Chanelle Grey has a book coming out in Sept called My Heart Be Damned which I believe is similar to the kind of story you talking about. http://chanellegray.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-heart-be-damned-cover-reveal.html

WalpurgisQuill · Apr 10, 2012

Ryukami said:
I don't have a title for it yet since It's just concept work. I've been focusing on my dystopian fantasy which I call "Dragonspeaker" more, but I've kinda hit a rut with that story due to a certain aspect of the story that was meant to be minor starting to slowly dominate it and piles and piles of schoolwork/big end of term papers. So needless to say most of the writing I have been doing lately has been of the non-fiction, academic variety. However, the story's setting was initially made for a sort of episodic style of writing, kinda like a more mature Nancy Drew where each book the team would be investigating a new paranormal event.

There was a loose frame of an overarching story I had planned which involved a conflict with the Illuminati among other things, but I was mostly focused on the episodic format. However, I am starting to think that the episodic format may not be the best way to go, and if I flesh out the idea more I'll probally move to making the focus more on the Illuminati conflict and probably focus the paranormal investigation more on just aliens and conspiracies rather then aliens + ghosts + criptids + whatever else passes into my insane mind.

Or likewise, I could focus it more on criptids or one of the other areas. I always found cryptozoology to be interesting and the idea of "monster hunters" was always appealing to me ever since I was in elementary school and was drawing monsters before I could draw people. Like I said, the concept is very mailable right now because it's just a concept, there is no book yet and I've yet to even write anything on it, I've been more focused on "Dragonspeaker" and school right now.

Lol, I know how you feel with the story taking over itself and being buried in homework as it is. Certainly fun, but exhausting.

It sounds like a very cool concept, its something I know that I would be interested in reading! But each episode would have to have a certain freshness to it, because I know how things can get sort of... contrived, when you do the same thing again but with a different spin.

YA Novels about Teen Ghost Hunters...

WalpurgisQuill

TudorRose

not napping... brainstorming!

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

Saanen

Becca C.

WalpurgisQuill

Becca C.

meowzbark

convoyrider

Stiger05

Becca C.

Stiger05

thebloodfiend

Cory

Chazemataz

I went to sleep a poet

totopink

WalpurgisQuill

WalpurgisQuill

Nogetsune

Sage

Our Lady of Parentheticals

WalpurgisQuill

Nogetsune

WalpurgisQuill

Nogetsune

mellymel

WalpurgisQuill