Oh man. I was really looking forward to this book. I picked it up after my last two books were duds. I wa so sure I was going to love this. I was ready for beautiful writing. I was ready for this coming-of-age family drama.

That’s not what this book is.

It is, however, incredibly boring. There is almost no action in this book and zero resolution. The characters do grow or learn any kind of lesson. I want to just go and take Jojo and Kayla and bring them home with me.

It almost felt as though the author was trying to hard with the language and phrases used. These characters spoke in ways that didn’t feel consistent with their age and educational background. Jojo, especially, seemed far older than his 12/13 years.

I was also confused throughout most of this book about what point in time we were in. It seems very much like a book taking place in the first half of the twentieth century, but Jojo mentions Jordans and cell phones. It just didn’t feel grounded enough in reality.

I didn’t think the ghosts served much purpose, if I’m being honest. The same story could’ve existed without them and would have perhaps been even better, as I found myself getting confused with the changing viewpoint as a result of the writing.

I feel like I’m supposed to love this. And trust me, I wanted to. I love the title, the cover, and the general premise. But oh my, this was a mess.

Also, I really disliked the audiobook. Usually I am happy when books have multiple voice actors, but I thought it was very poorly directed/produced. The actor reading the Leonie parts was so annoying. She used this breathy, almost husky voice that didn’t seem to fit the character at all. Then she would hold out words and then others would be clipped off with large pauses in between words. It was almost like William Shatner with regards to her cadence. The actor voicing Jojo’s parts was good, but he didn’t sound 12/13, and since this is told in first person present tense, he should’ve sounded younger. The other actor left zero impression on me, positive or negative. All of the voice actors came across incredibly monotonous and didn’t attempt to modulate their voices when reading dialogue, which was another confusing factor.

At the end of the day, I’m supper bummed. This was highly anticipated for me and I’m disappointed. Oh well, on to the next.