2 stars
Picked this book up, along with its sequel, at a library sale. Figured it would be good for a quick, easy read.
Overall, I was pretty disappointed by it. The idea for the plot was interesting, but it was gone about in a very drawn out and boring way. The narration was dated and the characters were not very fleshed out. It’s basically The Sixth Sense with a bunch of teenage drama thrown in. The twists were pretty predictable as well. I realize it’s written for a younger audience, but it felt patronizing with how many hints the author thought the reader needed to figure out the obvious details.
The design of the book was nice. I did like some of the cutesy-morbid drawings, although some of them did not coordinate with the text.
The pacing of the book was off with too much set up in the beginning, forcing everything to wrap up in a very quick, inefficient manner. Some of the plot points introduced in the beginning were reduced to awkward speculation in the dialogue as resolution at the end, as though they were just afterthoughts. Not a very satisfying ending. The book tried to do too much in terms of plot, which left everything to fall flat at the end.
Also, I disliked that the book included bullying and stalking behaviors, but never really went anywhere with them. There was no lesson or even really any consequences for the negative behavior. It is just treated as part of life.
Not a fan of this one. I do have the followup book, which I may try at some point but this one just wasn’t for me. Cool idea, but not great execution.