"I think the important thing to realize, to try and remember, is that grief doesn't have a rule book. You're allowed to feel every emotion under the sun. You're even allowed to invent new ones." 

After her father's death, Jane and her mother move across the country from sunny California to a dreary old house in Maine where her mother grew up. They are looking for a fresh start, but not everything is what it seems at North Manor. With Jane's own struggles of grief and bullying, her mother doesn't appear to be herself either. 

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. It is YA horror, which not to say that all YA horror is bad, but this one did not work for me. 

I liked the concept of the story, but the execution wasn't the best. The writing was simple, but for a book about grief, the characters' emotions felt pretty stilted. Jane and her mother handled their grief differently, however, the relationship between the two felt like a friendship between two teenaged girls. Also, Jane kept referring to her parents by their names which made the familial connection feel detached. 

There was such a slow build up to the story that the action and reveals occurred in the last 50 pages, and the ending was ambiguous, but lackluster. I personally felt like the story could have taken a completely different trajectory to make it more effective. 

If you enjoy YA horror, please don't take my review at face value. I got the book based on positive reviews so other people liked it 😅