Ratings15
Average rating3.1
When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt's home, it's immediately clear that the "blood manor" is cursed. The creaking of the house and the stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too--the questions that Silla can't ignore: Who is the beautiful boy that's appeared from the woods? Who is the man that her little sister sees, but no one else? And why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer?
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Insert big ass SIGH here. I hate endings....that I hate. This book started off well enough and I was creeped out reading. It was a lot of madness at one point. Couldn't tell what was real or not. Was it all in Silla's head..or was this all really happening. Then at one point it stopped being creepy because it was most of the same. The aunt screaming in the attic and the whispers at night and the voice coming from the hole in the floor stops being creepy after it's been repeated for several chapters. But that ending...cue massive eye roll. I know this isn't the most heart warning review but I really didn't hate the book. Just the ending. Funnily enough the one other Kurtagich book I've read I also hated the ending while loving the rest of the book. I hope that's not a pattern.
DNF. The writing was really disjointed - I realise it was for effect but it made it difficult for me to concentrate - and I couldn't relate to any of the characters enough to keep me engaged.
I didn't know if I liked the book until the end. How did I not see that coming?! And the overall message of the book, just wow! The only thing I would say is that the very last bit was a little more fanciful than I liked, but it is a YA. And that is a bit picky. I want to go back and reread it now that I know how it ends.
The concept of this book was very intriguing to me, and it ended up being a major disappointment. I think I wanted it to not be as much of a mind game as it was because I wanted there to truly be something creepy out in the woods that keep getting closer to the house rather than everything being in her head.
I enjoyed the suspense of the novel and parts of the confusion that Silla was going through. However, her confusion made me confused at some points because of the times where we would come around to the same setting as earlier and something totally different would be happening (mainly towards the end of the book when they are at the cave part). I didn't like how she could just “reset” her life in the house and try to make it something new (i think that's what was happening with the cave - i am not totally sure of that).
I also didn't trust Gowan from the beginning. Him coming out of nowhere and just acting like he knew them and was friends with them and loved them (which I guess he actually did in their life) made me very suspicious of him and I really would have rather had him be a bad character and not someone trying to help her.
Overall, I did not like the ending. I thought it was interesting that she had created this place for herself because of her guilt, but I didn't like how she was doing this in her death - I think it would have been more interesting to have her go crazy in real life. I would have also liked it more had the curse been a real curse. It also really bothered me that Silla and Gowan as “ghosts” could just return to the earth at try their hand at life again. I was like “what????”