Laura

4.5⭐️

I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did. It has a fun creepy premise and the plot is suspenseful but the characters just had no depth and nothing to make them meaningful or relatable. The main characters are just not that interesting - they seem like they SHOULD be, but then we never see enough of their internal thoughts or anything to really make them unique. No one ever acts in a way other than exactly how we would expect based on their character, and every character could essentially be described in one sentence (and in the whole book we never go deeper than that).

The supernatural monsters are really really creepy and very well described - definitely the best part of the book. The human villains are...as flat and boring as the human heroes.

I read this book when I was maybe 11 or 12 and I remembered being really creeped out, but I didn't remember anything else about it so I picked it up again hoping for a fun Halloween read. It's definitely an easy read and the plot moves along quickly and engagingly but I would necessarily recommend it.

I enjoyed this book - but the 4 star review is largely thanks to the audiobook read by Cathleen McCarron. There are some elements of the book which I think I may have found less captivating without the excellent narration. The ending of the book was a little bit disappointing/felt rushed and a bit reliant on tropes, but I would still recommend this book if you want something fun and heartwarming. I did appreciate the main character as being fairly unique and compelling: quirky and often even annoying, and yet still very likeable.

This book is beautiful and at times painfully relatable.

The audiobook read by Aoife McMahon was one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. She did an amazing job of depicting each character with subtly differences in voice, and reading so smoothly you are never taken out of the story.

flawless