Okay.

I like stories with kids uncovering forgotten histories and secrets, especially in this place with its feeling of being a forgotten land. Don't like the manic pixie dream next door, but hell it was written in the 90s I'll cut it some slack. I judge books by their covers and I bought this as a teen because it was beautiful. The book itself is nice, fine. Feels like a debut novel. So much of the backstories being told in the form of dialogue instead of just switching perspectives to tell the story in the past took me out of it. If I'm thinking "People don't talk like this!" whenever I read something, I know I'm taking points off. I don't like how quick the ending was, but only because you didn't really get to sit with the main character and the titular character after the mystery's been solved. So it's a fine book like it's okay. It's whatever. I'm being harsh. It's alright.