Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I think Jackson's jump from YA to Adult fiction went pretty well, although his writing did skew a little more YA at times throughout the book. I really enjoyed the cast of characters, but it felt a little too... to the point. There weren't any background characters or unnecessary subplots, other than the romance plot, and very little background is given about anything that isn't necessary to the plot which made it feel a little less like a story and more like a series of plot points held together to make a story.  

I did wish that there was more character nuance but I did love how Jackson subverted who the villain was. I feel like this could've been fleshed out more in general. A lot of the character arcs and plot points felt surface level at best and I wish we, the readers, got to spend more time with Lewis, Edgar and the paintings, beyond just "I'm Black and queer from Baltimore" and "I'm doing evil things because I desperately want my sister back and these paintings are reflections of what I did."

There were several grammatical errors throughout, and the genre definitely errs more to fantasy than it does horror but I do want to see what Jackson comes up with next. I'm sure with more time and practice, Jackson can improve upon what he started in The Macabre, especially because the magic system was so unique and the premise so interesting. The open ending epilogue made it seem like we may be seeing more of this universe, and I will be waiting for Jackson to release more.