Covers the first couple episodes of the Hilda TV series, so I didn't want to read a story I was already familiar with. Good for those that haven't been exposed to the show yet.

Kiersten White's book have always been a hot and cold area for me, ranging from excruciatingly terrible to actually engaging and showing great potential for a series. This book fell smack dab in the middle, as it struck me as 2/3s meh and 1/3 okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous.

I think White did a passable job at making Elizabeth into her own character, with passions, motivations, and an interesting arc. It kind of all fell to pieces at the end, but it was still a valiant effort. She rubbed me the wrong way in a few places, but it was nice to see a character that was almost virtually nothing in the source material to someone with actual depth.

Her relationship with Victor came off as told, rather than shown, as the majority of their interactions are displayed through flashbacks and I wish there was a bit more between the two.

Also, I wish Victor was written with as many morally gray traits as Elizabeth instead being, you know, outright evil. It kind of cheapens the character and yes, he was not meant to be a likable character even in the source material, but he wasn't absolutely soulless.

The last fifty pages of the book are well, sure something.

As an aside, I'm so tired of the "sticking an otherwise healthy woman into a mental asylum as a way to do away with her" trope. I get the historical significance, but I'm just done with it as a whole. Time to get more creative.

Also, this book needed more of the creature, but that's just a personal thing.

Lesson learned: Stay away from White's standalones and stick to the series books.

Too slow paced, nearly halfway through the book and there isn't even an inkling of conflict and the doey eyed romance angle sparks cheesy Hallmark flick vibes, which really isn't for me. The dialogue is a bit ridiculous at times, to the point where I was either constantly eye rolling or gagging. The one thing I appreciated was that the author at least attempted to make the relationship between Beth and Xavier not too awkward with a ridiculous age gap that comes with pairing humans with typically immortal beings, but then went right ahead trying to set up a Molly/Gabriel thing that just rubs me the wrong way for multiple reasons.  

Kate DiCamillo knocks it out of the park again with this emotional, thoughtful tale of a toy rabbit thrust into a journey that lands him into the hands of several people, learning about love and loss throughout the way. At this point, having read a good amount of her books, I just have to accept the fact that I'm going to get emotional one way or another. I think it's the genuine amount of feeling the author puts into her writing and the reflective qualities of her tone. The internal journeys are treated just as importantly as the external and I love that in a book. The book feels like a classic fairy tale, one that feels timeless and has a good balance of wonder and tragedy. 

Bagram Ibatoulline's artwork brings an extra charm to the story, with illustrations that carry the same amount of emotion as the text. Some of them gave me a Norman Rockwell kind of vibe, and the style overall fits so well with the tone of the book. 

If you like sweet, simple, but still emotionally impactful children's stories, then this book is right up your alley. 

The art was neat and I enjoyed the designs of some of the more monstrous ghosts, but the plot/worldbuilding was all over the place and I never really understood the rules of ghosts in this universe. It was just a bit of a mess story wise.

Too slow-paced, not enough character development or insight beyond basic backgrounds. A good, promising premise, but unfortunately it doesn't deliver. I do appreciate its historical aspect, as well as it having a Jewish main character that we actually see practice her religion, which I rarely find in books. Still, there wasn't enough to hold my interest.