Most of her books are told from the point of view of a young female protagonist, a girl caught in the flux of development, often awkward, often insecure, a mixture of frailties. Hahn once told
Something about the Author (
SATA) that she strives to create "real life" in her novels. "Like the people I know, I want my characters to be a mixture of strengths and weaknesses, to have good and bad qualities, to be a little confused and unsure of themselves." Neither are happy endings always a guarantee in a Hahn novel, for life does not always provide such endings. "At the same time, however," Hahn remarked, "I try to leave room for hope."
"But not all my work is of this serious nature," Hahn reported in an interview for Authors and Artists for Young Adults (AAYA). "Some of my books I call entertainments, and they are often among my most popular. In those I use elements of fantasy and the supernatural, elements I can't employ in the serious fiction. You can't simply have a ghost come along in real life and change the course of a story.
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