Speculative or Paranormal?

DavidBrett

Alas, poor Yorick, he fed me 'nanas
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Alright, I'm ready to query my MS from Monday, but I'm stuck on one particular detail...

The book is an MG novel called THE ENIGMA FILES: PHANTOM THIEF, and I've been pitching it as 'an X-Files for kids'.

Now, since paranormal has become associated with lovesick emos moping after sparkly vampires and the like, would my book be better suited pitched as speculative mystery?

Dave
 

MrsBrommers

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I'd probably call it speculative since it's doesn't sound like it's a straightforward paranormal. Speculative encompasses more than merely supernaturalism. Your MS sounds like fun!
 

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny
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I'd say "phantom" conveys the paranormal element well enough without having to highlight it further. Why not just call it a spooky MG mystery or some such? (Spooky being for the X-files connotation.)
 

Polenth

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If you call it a paranormal mystery, describe the story in the query and mention the X-Files, I can't see why they'd think it's a romance. Paranormal on its own is often used as a shortening for paranormal romance, but paranormal mystery is paranormal mystery.