This was a really fun and spooky tale! 🎃👻 I don't like anything that's too scary and Katherine Arden managed to tell a perfect Halloween-esque story with just enough spine tingling moments. One of the major strengths of this book was her writing. Page after page, I felt transported to a crisp New England fall with how everything was depicted so vividly. I loved the use of a story within a story and I became just as frustrated as Ollie every time someone made her (and me) stop reading it.
While I may not be within the target age group, I still appreciated the messages of friendship and looking beyond appearances that were highlighted throughout the text. I also liked how this book dealt with grief and overcoming its negative effects.
There were two aspects that kept me from rating this a full five stars. First, the conclusion felt a bit rushed and then ended abruptly. The build-up to the final confrontation had been great, but then we hardly spent anytime with the villain after the reveal. Second, something happened about halfway into the story and I didn't realize exactly what until I got closer to the end where it was explained more explicitly. Maybe I'm just dumb (or had been trying to read so fast that I hadn't been paying attention), but I feel like it was easy to overlook this when it first occurred.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and I'm sad that it was over so quickly. Final rating: 4.5/5 stars