If you're looking for creepy, this baby delivers. A fantastic Gothic Horror with some haunting, gloomy, disturbing atmosphere. In fact, it's this writing and the creation of an eerie, nail-biting setting that makes the majority of the book.

The character relations are super messed up and really give off a disjointed vibe from the get go. Vera's relationship with her mother is highly disturbing. I couldn't understand how a mother could be so incredibly vicious to her own child. I also found myself irrationally angry at all the people around her, judging her for what happened while she was still so young. Her relationship with her father was likewise weird. He was two totally different people, the gentle way he dealt with Vera was totally off base from what I expected. And his alter ego? Oh boy...welcome to crazy land.

Though I really enjoyed the development of the atmosphere and all the setup, there were some issues with the construction. There is definitely a slow burn to this novel, so prepare yourself for a bit of minutiae as it gets all laid out. The last chunk is a crazy whirlwind that creates an odd balance and kind of left my head reeling. I think I needed a bit more even development. This was particularly an issue with the artist story line. Things seemed to escalate quickly and go a bit sideways with that side plot and it felt a bit awkward...it was an off-putting situation that I really couldn't agree with as it was presented.

A super creepy read with a good hook and worth the time to work through the initial slow pace. It's well-crafted and has great atmospheric quality. It's not perfection, but it sure is a dang good time.