There is something that is so subtlety charming about this book. It often comes off as a folk horror story, in which a town must sacrifice one of their own to appease the malevolent force that lives in the woods and keeps their town from experiencing famine, disease, and overall hardship. There's a good dose of body horror as well, in which flowers and thorns grow out of skin, which is enough to give you a bit of a tingle down your spine. The beginning is somewhat of a slow start, as we see the town worry about how the ritual has come too soon this year and the concerns of some of the potential sacrifices, but when it finally gets going it keeps that energy for the rest of the story.

What I really appreciate is the strength of the love between the main trio. I always applaud an author that takes relationships that in any other YA novel would have been a contentious love triangle and instead creates a more polyamorous union between them. It gives a good bit of representation, subverts a trope that's been done to death, and honestly feels so refreshing to see characters that all truly like each other.

While I found this book entertaining and worth reading, I don't know if I'm going to remember it a year from now.