A very disturbing story for sure. I had very high expectation for this one, having hear a lot about it, and with all the bigs authors praising it. Anyway, it was definitely good, but not great. Let's start with the bad. The middle part was way too slow, and could have been edited a bit, because it really break the rhythm and kind of bring down your interest a bit. Another, and last, bad things, his that the horror, much gore part of it, seem a bit grotesque at some point, like the author was asking how far should a push it too shock people, and it wasn't always necessary. That being said, it's well written, even if a read the English translation, I don't read Deutsch, and contain a fews really strong sentences that I had to note in my quotes notebooks. The characters are good, I find myself really attach to the main family, the Grant, and caring about them, his, in my opinion, what makes everything that happen so horrible. The story was original and the ending just enough disturbing to be really good, and not grotesque, so well done for the ending. It's also deeper then just the witch story, there is a interesting reflexion about hate/violence in small town (could apply everywhere) and how that hate transform people, transform the perception on the world that surround them and how people need something to project their hate on, because they can't accept that it's inside of us all. That was what the book really is about, that is the real horror thing in it, and that was also why it's that good and special. Worth it!