This was lovely and unexpected in several ways.

 

Hazel and Ben were a rather charming pair of siblings, and I really felt for both of them. Their problems stemmed from a lack of proper communication in a lot of ways, and that often bothers me quite a bit, but in this it felt appropriate and normal. There seemed to be real reasons why they were not always communicating in a way that would make things easier, and not just "because there would be no plot."

 

I loved that they cared so much for each other. Maybe it is all the horror I was reading before I picked this up, but it feels refreshing to see a pair of siblings that don't either understand each other instinctively or hate and torture each other. Hazel and Ben had a good relationship that was strained by a few things but in general brought them both joy and gave them a sense of family they could fall back on, and I liked that.

 

This is a totally minor thing that comes up a grand total of once, but I also love that they both have names that are blatently stated to have been inspired by famous literary rabbits. Especially when I realized where Hazel's name must have come from. :)

 

I was not sure how I would feel about a faerie story when I picked this up. I'm often not a fan of the idea, and I feel as though, like the YA vampire market, it is oversaturated with a lot of crap. I also kind of require my faerie stories to be dark in order to really enjoy them properly. This was appropriately dark, I feel, without being a complete downer.

 

The idea of a town that handles its own weirdness very quietly as part and parcel of living there felt very much like Sarah Rees Brennan's The Lynburn Legacy, which is a huge compliment given how much I love that book. Don't get me wrong--it is, in practice, not at all the same thing, but the acceptance of living in a strange place feels the same and sets a very distinct tone that I really enjoyed.

 

The romances played out quite well, I think, and the way I was hoping they would. Both are unusual, certainly, but they were what I was rooting for by the time they came to culmination, and I always enjoy that. They were also sweet; although unusual, they were healthy romances, it felt like. That's also a huge good point in a YA novel--so many of them feature super creepy romances that kind of make me squirm on some level, so having this one have characters that didn't treat each other badly was comforting.

 

I saw some of the twists and turns and was genuinely surprised by others. I liked the way the story ended up going, but I was not expecting it to take that route as late as halfway through, so I enjoyed going along for the ride. Holly Black is definitely someone to watch, I think, and I'll be picking up more of her books in the future. 

 

This was a cute collection of creepy stories that was very well-framed.

 

I love the idea of a frame story, and having one that works as its own story as well as a frame story was a nice surprise--I was expecting it to simply be the first of the stories in the book.

 

There is a wide range of timeframes and types of horror represented, which I appreciated quite a bit. It mixes things up, and each of the stories is short and told by a different narrator, which means there's something here for everyone. Most of them are more "creepy" than "scary," which makes sense given this is definitely aimed at children or middle graders at best.

 

The timeframes in which the stories are set were well-researched, as far as I could tell, and I liked the inclusion of historical events and the consistent setting of Chicago. Watching the city kind of grow up through the lens of people who had died here was an interesting way of tying together a bunch of stories.

 

It didn't blow me away at this point in my life, but it is absolutely something I would have loved and re-read dozens of times as a child, and it is probably something I'll pick back up again now when I'm looking for a quick, easy horror read. 

 This was an interesting side-story about a character that doesn't get anywhere near as much expansion in the novels as apparently she deserves.

 

As a heads up, I'd probably wait to read this until you read the first book in the series (Dorothy Must Die) simply because it'll mean more at that point (and this might be potentially spoiler-y otherwise).

 

Jellia has a lot more going on than I think I realized, and I loved all the details about life before and after Dorothy's return from someone who was actually there. It was fascinating to see all the weird little details about characters that only someone who serves in this capacity was likely to get to see.

 

If you're looking for some more of this universe, this is definitely worth a read. 

 

I somehow managed to miss reading this in school and in all the years since, so I picked it up as an audiobook so I didn't feel so disconnected from the entire world, which does seem to have read it.

 

I did enjoy it, but in the same sort of way you "enjoy" a thriller you know is going to end badly. I could see most of the steps coming as they came (some of this might be due to having read 1984 in school, so I am familiar with Orwell, even if not with this particular novella), and it left me with the kind of terror you only get looking on at something that is going to end terribly and not being able to stop it.

 

As we got closer and closer to the end, it started becoming the sort of runaway train that could only really end one way, and watching the poor animals on their way to this ending was distressing.

 

I liked most of the characters, or at least felt deeply for them in this situation that was rapidly spiraling out of their control because of their own lack of education and understanding. It was horrifying to see them acquiescing to things I could tell were going to lead to disaster, to see them falling for each and every trick played on their minds and their hope, and to know that there was nothing they could do. What makes it worse is the idea that, for all this is clearly a fantasy-type novella, it felt real. This sort of things has happened, and for many of the same reasons. You create an outside enemy, you control the situation, you act like you are friends with those under your command, and things always seem to end badly.

 

It is absolutely worth a read if you, like me, managed to somehow miss it. It will leave you feeling a bit paranoid and a bit horrified, but all the best dystopians do, and this certainly belongs to that class. 

 

I enjoyed this, though I'm not quite sure how much of it was "real" and how much was not (and that is half the fun!)

 

I admit I did see the revelation towards the end that

but although I had thought of it very early on as a possibility, by the time it came back up I had forgotten it enough that I was surprised again.

 

It was eerie and I thought the "witch" herself was an interesting character. The voice given to her in the audiobook helped quite a bit in establishing that, as did deciding, for reasons unknown to me but probably relating to some kind of insanity, that I ought to listen to this at night as my bedtime book. I liked that she was multi-dimensional and had different reactions to different people; it was intriguing to try to figure out "why" (if there is a "why" in what is supposedly a real haunting).

 

The main character's interest in the young girl was a little creepy, though given the time period I suppose it is not quite as skeevy as it seems today. He was a decent enough narrator, and I liked the framing of this as something he is passing down to his daughter. I wish he had had a more active roll throughout the story, but given this is based on a real incidence, I suppose there's not much to be done about that.

 

Betsy Bell, for all that she seemed to be one of the main centers of the paranormal activity, did not come through with a whole lot of character. It is probably made worse that the voice for her in the audiobook was pretty atrocious. I literally had to pause the first time I heard it and laugh; it is an awkward attempt by a man to sound like a young woman, and it very much sounds like it. Even by the end of the book, I never felt like I knew her, though I did understaand her a little better.

 

In the end, this was creepy and enjoyable, and I'm glad I read (heard?) it. I had heard the name "The Bell Witch" in passing previously, so I came in with no knowledge of what to expect, and I feel like that is the best way to experience the story.