Ratings8
Average rating4.1
Cemetery Boys meets The Haunting of Bly Manor in this spellbinding debut! Alex Crespo’s queer haunted house mystery is equal parts spine-tingling thrills, a celebration of found family, and must-read for paranormal romance fans.
For Jaime, returning to the tiny Vermont town of Saint Juniper means returning to a past he’s spent eight years trying to forget. After shuttling between foster homes, he hopes he can make something out of this fresh start. But every gossip in town already knows his business, and with reminders of his past everywhere, he seeks out solitude into the nearby woods, called Saint Juniper’s Folly, and does not return.
For Theo, Saint Juniper means being stuck. He knows there’s more out there, but he’s scared to go find it. His senior year is going to be like all the rest, dull and claustrophobic. That is until he wanders into the Folly and stumbles on a haunted house with an acerbic yet handsome boy stuck—as in physically stuck—inside.
For Taylor, Saint Juniper is a mystery. The surrounding woods speak to her, while she tries—and fails—to practice the magic her dad banned from the house after her mother died. Taylor can’t seem break out of her spiral of grief, until a wide-eyed teenager barges into her life, rambling on about a haunted house, a trapped boy, and ghosts. He needs a witch.
The Folly and its ghosts will bring these three teenagers together. But they will each have to face their own internal struggles in order to forge a bond strong enough to escape the Folly’s shadows.
Reviews with the most likes.
I liked this book. It was a good debut and I'll want to read from this author again. I'm such a big fantasy reader that I sometimes forget just how nice a light fantasy/magical realism can be.
I did, however, really want this to be a 5 star book, and while I did really enjoy it, it just didn't grasp onto that 5 star rating that I wanted it to. There wasn't anything wrong with the book, I think I was just expecting a lot more from what I got from the synopsis and comps – perhaps more action. But that didn't deter me too much from liking it, which is good.
I liked the three main characters, but not one specifically stood out to me – but that was also good. I like it when I don't have an immediate favourite. I liked the bond they created with each other and the romance between Theo and Jaime. It was sweet and I liked how it was friends first, then the romance.