As always for every review I write, I must preface by saying I do not write them very often but sometimes I feel like I must.. and this story definitely deserves it!

This is a psychological horror that I feel thrives on its subtle ways of building tension and intrigue. Particularly in the way in which it gives you and withholds information, a complete give and take. It gives you something to think about or the characters will talk about something and then by the next chapter you are questioning how important that thing really was in respect to the overarching narrative. At the same time it could be true that some topics spoken about or some other details may have been a fake out or it just may not have been what you thought at all. I, in particular, did not think a certain character was the way she was until the last quarter of the book and it was a really mindblowing moment. There is another twist towards the end that I was not expecting too and it really makes you think back to moments at the beginning of the book with this information now in your head, you see those moments in a different light now, those moments prior. This is really good I feel, a narrative that makes you really think about every piece of information you obtain while making you feel oddly uneasy at every corner, the way they characters are written, act and any monologues are thoughts from Yuna for example do a great job of keeping that tone as well.

On a personal note I also love the hints of subtle romance, it really crushed me cause I almost wanted something completely different for a certain pair of characters in this book as well.

All of this on top of this book being very different from everything else Mara has written I think makes it even more impressive and I applaud them for taking such risks with the narrative and leaving a lot of the guesswork up to the reader, creating a story that genuinely keeps you asking and wanting more… while consistently giving you breadcrumbs.. (frustratingly good LOL)

- XiaolianLover123