A seventeen-year-old girl has an abusive father who is obsessed with the ancient Britons, and so she, the dad, and her cowed mother join a two-week college excursion to "live like they did back then" and like, make a fire with sticks and try not to eat anything too poisonous.

That's it. It's very boring. The tension would slowly start to rise, but then it would immediately fall again. The ending was so dumb I thought my copy was missing pages.

Spoiler

The dad ties up his daughter and starts cutting her and she is totally convinced he's going to actually kill her as if she were some kind of ancient bog sacrifice, and even the professor who let them come on the trip is into it, which honestly bothered me more than the crazy dad, but one of the other students gets the police and she gets rescued and then the story just ends, leaving you with no idea what happens to her parents or her.

I really liked the art, but I AM SO TIRED of this narrative of "nerdy boy does dramatic things to get attention of hot girl, leaving his friends by the wayside for one (1) kiss". I also hate "my parents didn't tell me I had superpowers so I'm going to leave town with the man who is CLEARLY the bad guy." Just fuck off.

Trying not to kill myself over a book published in NINETEEN SEVENTY ONE that is severely concerned about climate change. No it's fine I'm fine everything is fine.

A horrifying novella of creeping dread, it is perfect to haunt your dreams (side effects may include . . . )

Felt more like a fable; it lacked the human interest portion I expect from children's lit.

A nice short read to kick off the high holy season (aka Halloween).

I'M FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE

I might have liked this as a kid, but it lacked magic to me.

Twain's a great writer but the story just doesn't hold up well.

This story is chock full of fairy tale retellings (Beauty and the Beast, Cupid and Psyche, and the main male character is named Tamlin for christ's sake, just to name a few), but don't let that fool you. This is not young adult, as the poverty, sex, and violence are at the forefront. This is not a coming-of-age tale, but rather one about what it means to love and protect and live. Not the typical YA what would you die for, but the new adult what would you kill for. Painful and excellent.

I love the premise but the conclusion was too easy. I loved that Suzette was battling both Crohn's and her daughter, and that Alex was a Swedish man who longed for a loving family. I even loved that their bond was so strong. But the existence of a school that was a perfect fix for Hannah seems pretty farfetched. I was both terrified of her doing something fatal and disappointed that she didn’t.