Eerie, gory, mysterious, and with a slight touch of fantasy. So let me first begin by saying this is a story about a mother and daughter... and the thing that plagues them. The story is told in two timelines, in 2004 with Coraline and in 2019 with Coraline’s daughter thirteen year old Lila. The main mystery is what is happening to them and who this serial killer is that is around them. There is a serial killer named The Cur who kidnaps mutilates, and kills young girls, particularly young girls who do not obey and are not “good girls”. They had been doing it during Coraline’s time and now have resurfaced again in Lila’s tine. The Cur mutilates girls and has never been caught. On top of that Coraline is dealing with the possibility that she might be seeing and hearing things (in 2004), and now in 2019 Lila feel’s as if someone is talking to her and that she is seeing things. The story draws a slow connection between these two timelines and the events of both mother and daughter. Both having faced a mysterious man with the head of a dog and the body of a man... and voices in their heads. What’s real and what’s not starts to plague them, and unraveling the mystery might have consequences neither had anticipated. To be super honest, I got a bit lost reading this, the tone shifts from mystery to a disturbing fairytale, to family drama to growing up teen drama. I couldn’t really tack down the tone of the book since it kept shifting and while some parts pulled me some parts lost me, overall the story ends on a note that just left me saying “ huh, so it ended like that” I am still unsure about how I feel about this book. The story doesn’t necessarily commit to a tone and shifts between mystery, fairytale, and family drama, as well as being a young woman growing up. It was interesting and I would definitely recommend people check it out for themselves and see what they think.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*