Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter by Melissa Savage || Funny, Anxiety-Laden Ghost Hunt

Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter

While staying in a haunted Colorado hotel for her father's ghost-hunting television series, Karma Moon must battle her anxiety, interpret the signs of the universe, and get footage of a real ghost--you know, the usual.

Karma Moon is a firm believer in everything woo-woo, as her dad calls it. So when she asked her trusty Magic Eight Ball if the call asking her dad to create a ghost-hunting docuseries was her dad's big break, it delivered: No doubt about it. Because the universe never gets it wrong. Only people do.

Karma and her best friend, Mags, join her dad's Totally Rad film crew at a famous haunted hotel in Colorado over her spring break. Their mission: find a ghost and get it on camera. If they succeed, the show will be a hit, they can pay rent on time, and just maybe, her mom will come back.

Unfortunately, staying at a haunted hotel isn't a walk in the park for someone with a big case of the what-ifs. But her dad made Karma the head of research for the docuseries, so she, Mags, and a mysterious local boy named Nyx must investigate every strange happening in the historically creepy Stanley Hotel. Karma hopes that her what-ifs don't make her give up the ghost before they can find a starring spirit to help their show go viral--and possibly even get them a season two.

With Melissa Savage's quirky cast of characters and spooky setting underlaid by a touching and relatable struggle against anxiety and grief over her fractured family, Karma Moon--Ghosthunter is bound to charm and delight.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Ghost-hunting docuseries in book form.
• Lots of ghost hunting and speculating about ghosts.
• All sorts of paranormal and creepy goodness.
• A little mystery that needs solving.
• Super sweet father/daughter family bonds.
• A protagonist who doesn’t let her anxiety slow her down … much.
• An adorable trio with highly relatable banter between friends.

Many thanks to Crown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

When I saw that the protagonist, Karma Moon, had anxiety, I knew I had to read this book! I am so in love with all these books coming out normalizing all the different challenges people have and the unique things that form their character. Many people I love have anxiety, and I have anxiety. I feel like it’s so important for characters like this to exist, and I was not disappointed!

Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter is a hilariously relatable paranormal mystery about a girl with anxiety taking on one of the biggest challenges of her life: ghost hunting. That’s assuming her what-ifs don’t get her first.

I absolutely loved this book. I laughed so hard through the whole thing. As it turns out, anxiety can be funny when you’re not suffering through it yourself. You know, when you’re sitting on your couch like a perfectly rational person. Plus, the characters in this are just so darn much fun, with very unique personalities and plenty of hilarious banter!

Karma struggles with anxiety, and her experience is so entirely relatable!

I have anxiety myself, and anyone else who has it will recognize and likely commiserate with Karma’s plight. She calls it a case of the “what-ifs,” and the book is absolutely filled with them. For anyone who doesn’t have anxiety, it may be an eye-opening experience to understand what goes on in the mind of anxious people. For readers with anxiety, there’s a chance you may recognize some of these thoughts!

What I loved most about Karma’s what-ifs is that they run the range from perfectly logical thoughts to completely absurd ideas that made me laugh, yet it all rang so very true, as someone who experiences anxiety.

I mean, to be fair, when I’m stuck in my own what-ifs, they tend not to be particularly funny, nor does Karma find her own all that funny, either. As a reader, though, some of Karma’s what-ifs cracked me up, because not only were they incredibly ridiculous and so far-fetched and unlikely, they were also what-ifs that I’d had at some point myself. Which just made them all the funnier to me. Case in point:

As it turns out, anxiety can be funny.

Not in the laugh at someone and make fun of them sort of way, of course. But funny nevertheless. Mostly because I have this thought at least once a month, followed by the notion that I am obviously just unlucky enough to have a high probability of being in that statistic. I mean, it hasn’t happened yet, but wait for it.

Fun fact: when I moved into my house, it had been empty for almost a year prior to that, so even though it was sprayed for bugs, I ended up finding a rather large brown recluse in one of my shirts in my closet. I still religiously check my clothes before putting them on ten years later because ZOMG WHAT IF I GET BITTEN AND DIE?! Or worse, what if I get bitten and don’t die and suffer horribly, surgery after surgery, until a limb finally has to come off due to necrotic rot?!

What I’m trying to say is that anxiety can totally be funny, and I related to Karma so well here that I just absolutely found myself cracking up.

Fans of ghost hunting TV shows, rejoice! Karma Moon: Ghost Hunter takes that idea and condenses it down into an engaging, paranormal romp.

I am an absolute sucker for ghost hunting shows. Ghost Hunters was actually one of my favorite things to watch as a teenager, and that title pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? So obviously, I was thrilled. The story doesn’t bog down so much from the day-to-day minutia of attempting to record a spirit and not finding one, though. Instead, Karma and Mags set off to find a ghost in their own.

I thought the author did a brilliant job of capturing the more exciting aspects of ghost hunting while also providing an interesting sort of behind-the-scenes look at how difficult the job can be and how high the stakes are.

The characters in this make such a quirky group, and when they get together, their banter is just fantastic!

First up, of course, there’s Mags, who is Karma’s best friend. At first blush, they’re totally different, but maybe that’s what makes them work so well. I couldn’t help but laugh at some of their exchanges, which reminded me so fondly of my own friends at that age! Gosh, there was just so much nostalgia in the way they interacted. I imagine it’s the sort of carefree, inside-joke-laden that kids will immediately recognize and relate to.

Then add a boy into the mix, just to complicate things a little. You know, because that’s what boys are especially good at. It’s like their superpower. Nyx seems a little odd at first, but hey, who among us isn’t? I really enjoyed the trio they become, and I’d love to read more books with these three working together!

There are some really touching family moments in this, particularly between Karma and her father, and oof, they just struck me right in the feels every time.

Having anxiety is hard. Being the parent of someone with anxiety is also hard … I imagine. Add to that the fact that Karma’s mother left (and obviously needs a good talking to … with a fist … upside her head …) and things become all the more fraught and complicated. But Karma and her father are doing their best.

Karma’s relationship with her parents is complicated. With her mother, it’s toxic, and with her father, there’s miscommunication galore. Yet, I loved the representation of both and the impacts they have on Karma.

Toxic relationships are hard, but especially for kids, and Karma needs to decide how she’s going to handle her self-centered, emotionally unavailable mother. My words, not hers. She’s not quite old enough to realize that yet, but she’s getting there. It takes a lot of courage to realize when someone just can’t or shouldn’t be a part of your life, and this is where I thought Karma’s personal journey had so much power.

Plus, miscommunication? Always a hard thing at that age. Karma has to navigate her way through utterly, painfully relatable feelings such as thinking she’s a burden or that her father doesn’t want her or wishes she were different. I loved this, because these are such normal feelings, so it’s extra nice to see them handled so well in middle grade fiction.

Other Reviews:

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