This was an incredibly spooky, effective book with a really interesting concept; a horror story told from the perspective of the child being haunted. At first I struggled with the gimmicky writing style, but I think it actually makes for a much more interesting narrative.

As other reviewers have mentioned, I do really think it loses steam in the final act. It is so mysterious and truly terrifying (that bathroom scene!) for 3/4 of the book, but once things start wrapping up it feels a bit unsatisfying. The actual ending however (the last few pages), I think was suitably horrific, which brought it back home (lol) for me.

I kept thinking this would be a great movie, but now that I'm done I'm not sure that it would? The story being told from Bela's perspective is what makes this so special, and it would be pretty difficult to recreate that on film. Regardless, this wasn't perfect but I really liked it, it scared me, and I will absolutely recommend it.