A bit of a disappointment. What promised to be a creepy look at potentially dangerous and definitely peculiar children turned out to be a paint by the numbers YA novel. A boring one, at that.

As for the pictures, it felt like the entire novel was written just as an excuse to use them in some way. They rarely had anything to do with the plot, and I didn't need the extra not-so-creepy picture as a visual aid for something that was literally just described in the narrative.

Jacob was boring, the romance was boring, the mystery wasn't so much of a mystery, and none of the kids were creepy. Most of the twists and revelations were delivered in exposition dumps, and even the big action sequences didn't read as exciting as they could have been.

My 2014 reading is not getting off to a great start.