4.5 stars

YEEES this is exactly what I was in the mood for, and EXACTLY what I was hoping this book would be!

Was the plot a little predictable? Yeah sure, but not at all in a bad way. What I wanted was a creepy ghost story that felt familiar, like opening up the dusty pages of a long forgotten book and coming home to a story I used to love. That's exactly what this book gave me, with some added bonuses in there too; a mute main character (which I'd never read before and wasn't sure how it would work, but I liked the execution), a feisty main character who was full of surprises, and maybe this is just me being thirsty for monsters but the image I conjured of Death and the audiobook narrator's voice for him was hot af.

I do wish we had gotten to spend more time with Hannah and Edgar. While we got to know them a little bit, enough to get a taste for who they are, I feel like they didn't have enough of a role for me to really feel for them. I could feel how much Matthew cared for them, and how much Olivia would grow to care for them, but I didn't have enough time to grow my own feelings towards them. But this is only a minor detail.

This was overall a fantastic book and I really really enjoyed it! The feeling of longing for home that filled every fibre of Olivia's character, her desperation for family and to feel wanted and like she belonged somewhere was so strong throughout this entire book. Her character felt so alive among all the death and decay that surrounded her. I loved the way Schwab played with colour in here too, it was such a visual book the whole way through. The atmosphere really shone, it was deliciously spooky and I loved every second of it. All the creepy moments of things hiding in shadows and flitting away once you turn to look left me shivering, and the constant feeling of foreboding was incredibly well done.

I can't get over how much I enjoyed this book, I seriously couldn't put it down! This is the perfect book for a rainy fall day, I'm so glad I waited until the end of summer to pick it up