This book had a totally gothic feel to me. In both the old, learnt-in-English class kind of way, and in the newer, but not completely modern, but in the 80s and 90s kind of way. Think Gaimain's Sandman series back when it first started. The feel you got from that. Take Dream, Delirium, Death, and Desire, put them in a normal, Irish high school, and then add a dash of the movie "Practical Magic", and you have this book. It was quite strange, but very, very suspenseful and well written.