Emil

I DNF'd this book at around 33%.

The concept for this book is very solid, the characters seem very real and fleshed out from the amount that I read (I especially like Ike).

However the pacing was a little uneven for me and characters are introduced so quickly that I found myself having trouble keeping track of who was who sometimes. This does fit with the premise of the book, things are meant to be a bit jumbled, however for me personally it was hard to keep up with.

I think if you like mystery with broken family dynamics mixed with cool afterlife mechanics then you could enjoy this. It just wasn't for me.

I have never been to Cape Cod, I don't have any siblings, and I've never been in the situations the twins find themselves in, but I felt like I was there in the thick of it with them.

Every single character is written beautifully and realistically, especially the two main characters twins Maddy and Jocelyn. This is a dual POV story so you get to see their minds and how different their personalities are. I was rooting for both of them at different points as problems between them came and went.

The other side characters feel equally as deep, although we don't get to see in their heads. Their personalities and thoughts are shown well through the eyes of whoever's POV we're with at the time.

The plot ranges from mundane everyday to high stakes and both were enjoyable to read.

I should probably visit Cape Cod.

Yi Chang is an investigator trying to track down the leader of a cult while also trying to solve a murder with confusing evidence.

I have mixed feelings about this book.

First of all, I did find the concept compelling and didn't ever feel bored reading. Even when I saw what was coming, it didn't feel like it was because the plot was overly predictable or tropey, it felt like it was because the book itself gave me enough information to figure it out myself. I found the characters interesting and relatively consistent, with their motivations being clear and understandable.

The writing can be a bit abrupt and stilted which I think is probably because this was translated. I'm not sure about Korean but I'm sure localising it to English is a pain. Sometimes the writing feels a but redundant, repeating the same noun over again when it's already clear what's being talked about.

Characters are mostly consistent but I did feel like they sometimes acted bizarrely for the sake of the plot, Yi Chang being the character I saw do this the most. Lan, the other main character, acted a lot more in character for the duration of the book.

Towards the end especially it started feeling more and more like a TV show in book form which I rather enjoyed. It can get quite dramatic and in those moments the writing was definitely better paced.

I would recommend this if you can get over the sometimes clumsy writing, the characters depite some hiccups do seem very human and the plot is quite engaging.