I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while (years, actually), but just never really got around to it! I don’t necessarily have a lot of experience with the original tale this story is based on (except for the Barbie movie, haha!), but the synopsis still sounded right up my alley. When my library hold on the audiobook finally came in last week, I knew it was at long last to read this one!

Right off the bat, this book was extremely atmospheric, and this was something that remained true throughout the whole story. I could taste the salt of the sea and feel the ghosts lurking in the dark halls of Highmoor. It was definitely this book's biggest strength and a large reason why this book was still three stars for me, despite having some issues with other aspects of the book. It’s also what has me still interested in other books by this author, as I can see myself falling into this sort of writing and description again!

One weak point of the writing, for me, was the repetitiveness of the description at points. This was actually pointed out by one of my friends in their review, and it rang true for me. An important aspect of storytelling, at least in many scenarios, is that you need to ‘show and not tell.’ Simply put, you can’t just explicitly tell everything to a reader, especially when it comes to characters (from personality, emotion, etc., etc.) This book has plenty of showing, and it’s done really well, up until it’s immediately followed by a line that explicitly explains what was meant to be shown. While I understand it might be there for clarity, it was often for fairly mundane descriptions, like showing a character’s reaction or feelings about something. It made otherwise good descriptive writing feel clunky and overbearing, as it was trying to point out something that was already obviously clear to me. Description typically works better when there’s some trust in the reader understanding the point you’re trying to make, even if it’s not entirely spelled out.

One last thing that really stuck out to me, positively, was how well the narrator + writing portrayed some of the confusion and unsurety of later scenes. I can’t go into this in too much detail, due to spoilers, but I really felt like I was in Annaleigh’s head for most of those final scenes. It was extremely disorienting, but it meant I was able to clearly feel how the world was shifting around Annaleigh, which added a lot of needed tension to the final moments of the book.

Unfortunately, there was more that didn’t work for me than that did, even if the atmosphere of the story still made it an overall enjoyable read. First, I felt like the characters needed more distinguishing features overall. While I know that in a retelling such as this one, you need to have at least twelve sisters (on top of the standard array of supporting characters), it didn’t feel like there were actually twelve sisters. There were definitely twelve different names, but so many of their personalities and roles in the stories were easily interchangeable, beyond an obvious few. This was especially true for the sisters that were ‘grouped up’, in a way, like the triplets, the younger set of sisters, and the dead sisters. It took me a long while to even learn all their names, but then we never really got any development or description for them beyond very basic details, allowing me to point out which was the one that picked the pink dress for the ball or which is the one that died in a bathtub. It also made the grief feel less present because it never felt like the sisters, alive or dead, were anything actually real, so the loss of them didn’t feel like the loss of anything much. I also found the final twist predictable, and while I don’t actually mind that as long as it’s still done well overall, it did feel like the narrative was trying too hard not to look too closely at certain characters, to try to make it less obvious that way. It made some parts of the plot and Annaleigh’s actions feel weird, especially later on when she starts questioning everything and everyone. This was also generally true for many characters, though, where it felt like their reactions to events were more about plot convenience and keeping the story progressing instead of it feeling like how a character would actually feel or react in that situation. Lastly, the ending also felt silly to me, or at least one specific aspect of it. It’s just not something I ever appreciate in stories, at least not done so quickly, and it ruined any of the possible weight the ending may have carried for me.

Overall, while this book didn’t entirely work for me, I did enjoy some aspects quite a bit, especially the atmosphere/setting of the story. I do think I’ll still give future books by Craig a shot, just to experience that level of immersion again!