"I thought you might sleep through it." The creature smiled. Saki's voice was little more than a whisper. "Sleep through what?" It leaned over. She stared into its will-o'-the-wisp eyes. "The Night Parade, of course." The last thing Saki Yamamoto wants to do for her summer vacation is trade in exciting Tokyo for the antiquated rituals and bad cell reception of her grandmother's village. Preparing for the Obon ceremony is boring. Then the local kids take interest in Saki and she sees an opportunity for some fun, even if it means disrespecting her family's ancestral shrine on a malicious dare. But as Saki rings the sacred bell, the darkness shifts. A death curse has been invoked...and Saki has three nights to undo it. With the help of three spirit guides and some unexpected friends, Saki must prove her worth-or say goodbye to the world of the living forever...
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If you can get over how bratty Saki is for the majority of the book, it is a surprisingly delightful read.
I almost put it down early on, and if I wasn't waiting for the odd things to start happening (and the yokai to show up) I would have because Saki was insufferable. But then when things finally started happening, I had something else to focus on - like the awesome spirits and the wonderful story and the great setting - and before the end of the book Saki had grown and changed and actually became some one that was actually a decent person.
I must add that I especially liked the Japanese setting and the Night Parade itself and was totally thrilled that so much of what I already knew about yokai and such agreed with this book. And my favorite was definitely the tengu. The kitsune and the tanuki were both fun, but it was definitely the tengu that I wanted to see more of.
