Chilling. Fast paced. I’ll be suspect about children’s drawings forevermore.  

 

This book had been sitting on my TBR shelf way too long.  And after seeing rave reviews on IG, I was eager to buddy read it when @bookmarked.by.becky queued it up.  

 

The first 2/3 of this book was wholly unputdownable.  Leaving everything else on pause, I plowed through the first 250 pages in one sitting.  The writing took hold.  The storyline was propulsive.  And I easily devoured the ongoing suspense.  

 

Of note:  the creepy artwork throughout was a unique add-on that heightened the suspense.  Macabre.  Beautiful?  I was fully invested in seeing the story play out.  

 

Alas… the last 1/3 of the book… didn’t work?  It seemed as though Rekulak felt the pressure to nail the ending within a certain amount of pages, and because of that, his writing and plotting suffered.  I needed an “AH-HA” moment.  But instead I felt, “well, ok.”  

 

If you can suspend the need for a tightly wrapped ending, this is a bingeable thriller (horror?) with a disturbing premise.