Overall, this book was not for me. While I enjoyed the folklore elements and some of the unique, poetic formatting, the tone of the book was very young and I had to suspend my disbelief for WAY too much of it. For example- I had to suspend my disbelief when told that a mother could tattoo her young son and not immediately be questioned by CPS (not to mention she has no tattoo experience, although this may be magic- the details aren't given on the production of the tattoos). I had to suspend my disbelief when told a barely 18 year old girl could be a teaching assistant at a US school (you usually need to be in an accredited college teaching program for that). The list goes on. While this is a paranormal/ horror book and you HAVE to suspend disbelief for ghosts and the like, you shouldn't have to have a hard time belief normal elements of the plot/situation. In addition, some of the word choices in the book were very poor. A Japanese man at one point says "fag" (in Japanese) despite there being no good translation for it... so, we're using gay slurs that don't translate well instead of other cuss words... why? I understand that the man in question was meant to be a murderer and a criminal but more research/ thought should have gone into what words he used. Also, his heavy handed threats about being associated with the Yakuza just came off as a detail thrown in for the reader more than a believable insult to use at the people he was speaking to. In addition, the book (narrator) also uses the word "obese" which, while still more acceptable in mainsteam culture than "fag", has been seen negatively ever since the dawn of the fat liberation movement. It's also tired and unnecessary that the villains have certain physically undesirable traits commonly associated with criminals as tropes- having a pock-marked or pimpled face, being fat, having poor teeth or beedy eyes, etc. While I know these "ugly" tropes are common in many books, they're still overused and not needed. While many of the place descriptions concerning Japan in the novel were well-done and accurate, there were also some linguistic anomalies that seemed bizarre. For example, a Japanese character says "kami help us". Kami is the Japanese word for a god but the idiom is English so the result is an odd blend that doesn't make a whole lot of sense considering the speaker was native Japanese and not a Japanese American. While there are obviously many complaints I have to make, I will say that I was pleased that this book referred to old Japanese folktales and Kabuki shows, whereas most books that deal with Japanese culture leave out the traditional elements. I also liked the building backstory of the main character (a ghost) which was revealed slowly instead of all at once in the books beginning, which I appreciated. However, those high points did not save this book for me. Other than the poor word choice and unbelievable situational elements, this book (a horror paranormal YA) simply wasn't scary. Then again, I am not in normal YA age range so younger people may find it creepy. However, for me I simply read it through as I would any other story- not scared. There are some promising elements that make me think Rin Chupeco's later work would be great but this really didn't do anything good for me personally.