4.5 stars. A great book for Aro Ace representation. I really enjoyed all the characters, especially Sunil! I also loved the building of Georgia and Rooney's friendship into something very strong and very loving <3 Friends are very important to Aces, I very much agree!

I really love the new Spiderman Miles Morales. I was worried at first, because it seems he wasn't going to have the same sense of humor, but once he dons the costume he feels a bit more free to be snarky. I'm a bit dubious that someone can be turned into a superhero twice by being bit by a science-enhanced spider, but the way they work it out in the Ultimates timeline works pretty well. I'm very excited to read more about Miles! He certainly is a unique hero and I'm glad Marvel is mixing up the genre with someone who isn't white!

Merged review:

I really love the new Spiderman Miles Morales. I was worried at first, because it seems he wasn't going to have the same sense of humor, but once he dons the costume he feels a bit more free to be snarky. I'm a bit dubious that someone can be turned into a superhero twice by being bit by a science-enhanced spider, but the way they work it out in the Ultimates timeline works pretty well. I'm very excited to read more about Miles! He certainly is a unique hero and I'm glad Marvel is mixing up the genre with someone who isn't white!

This book was interesting. It has some great moments. Some creepy moments. A great message and theme overall. But it got confusing and complex towards the middle there. Like the author kept coming up with creepy ideas and did their best to include them in the plot but it just made it overcomplicated and muddled. Or maybe it was just me.

A creepy book with ghosts and gross descriptions and spooks, but also real-life spooks and horrible situations involving immature parents, sexual abuse of minors, and Black girls that have to grow up too soon (and Black girls that don't even get a chance to grow up).

4.5 because that was a fun mystery that made for a great audiobook. I like how it's not only a "whodunnit" but you don't even know who was murdered! I don't read many murder mysteries so if that's been done before, it was new to me!

And the end:

Spoiler

I believe this book started out strong. I love me a good haunted house story! The mystery behind what Haven was running from and, later on, what secrets her father had hidden in the house were very compelling. I'd say 3/4 of the book was a fun, haunted house, horror-mystery.

Spoiler

Then it just became Inkheart. And self insert fanfiction. I mean, sure, I do love me the idea of a dark, broody book character with dubious morals coming to life and being obsessed with me, but that's for YN fanfiction. It definitely changed the mood of the entire book.

I can't say the change of tone toward the end of the book totally ruined my experience, but it looks like this is going to be a series (not my favorite thing), and if it continues this more fantastical/romantic vein then I think I'll just stop here.; thanks for the ride, good luck on your future endeavors.

I think this is my favorite Grady Hendrix book so far!
The title is misleading...kind of?

Spoiler

You only find out it's spot on and actually a haunting with a ghost pretty close to the end of the book.

But it was still a great book. The beginning is rough though if, like me, really immature, rude characters that made things 1000x harder/worse just make you SUPER angry as you read. I stuck through it and got to the horror part of this novel which isn't exactly ghosts haunting this house they're trying to sell but...
Puppets.
Dolls, puppets- if it's tiny and uncanny valley-ish and moving around when it shouldn't be I am immediately intrigued and terrified. If this was real life I would make sure it was on fire ASAP.
So this horror was definitely geared towards what I find scary so I was delighted by the book. Also, puppet theater and Mask Technique are so bizarre and fascinating to me, it really is borderline possession and horror!

I had such a good time with this book! I think T. Kingfisher and Becky Chambers are my newest, greatest, favoritest authors that my soul needs in my life right now.
Amazingly funny, Kingfisher manages to create such interesting characters that you just LOVE and can't wait to read more. All the characters! And I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud from this book.
Oh, yes, it is horror, by the way. But horror happening to such fun characters! Fantastical, magical, Lovecraftian horror happening in a "nice and normal" home in the middle of a cul-de-sac.

+500 points for loafing vultures borbing around a house.

More of Junji Ito's short, horror mangas. I just find myself skipping any of them with Souichi in them. I can't stand that character!

I enjoyed this one much better. Why? No Souichi!

A very unique book... No one is very happy in this book (or stays happy). I'm a little on the fence with it. I enjoyed listening to the audio book and it kept me listening! A little bit Lovecraftian horror, a very lot of Universal studios Werewolf monster (my head kept thinking of the wolfman in Nightmare Before Christmas? LOL),

Spoiler

a good dash of romance for the monster f#*kers >_> <_<

and the history of a very strange and tragic family and the monster that seemed to follow and stand outside their windows.

It also becomes a bit of a fantasy/alternate dimension book too.

Spoiler

I think they might have explained it at the end but I fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of it. Opps.