About The Book
Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its. . . secrets. But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right?
Buy The Book: https://amzn.to/42Qz3TP

My Rating

Right off the bat, I was unsure about the writing of this book. For some reason, I didn’t love the author’s writing style, and felt it was going to be a more slow-paced young adult thriller, which it did end up being. However, in the book, we have an unreliable narrator, so I enjoyed that aspect a lot.

Marigold has moved with her newly blended family to a small town, and is trying to leave her addiction in the past, after it almost ended her life. So, drug use is mentioned a lot throughout the story. I found it interesting to see Marigold’s struggle with addiction, because you could see her wanting to stay clean, but the addict part of her brain was trying to convince her that she needed to use.

She also deals with OCD, which is a mental illness that I haven’t read about in books before. I liked the way the author talked about all these different issues, while still keeping the core of the book as a thriller. However, I didn’t find Marigold to be very likable. She had a brother that she was close to, but didn’t even want try and connect with her younger stepsister. It frustrated me to no end.

“The house stills. The house heard us.”

As for the thriller part of the plot, it was pretty slow moving. But, once you hit about the 50% mark, things get creepy. While Marigold is trying to explain away these unexplainable incidents, thinking they’re caused by her addiction, you as the reader just know something isn’t right with the house. There were times that I was freaked out and had goosebumps.

I didn’t see the ending coming at all. It was way more hard hitting than I expected, and it was a shocking turn of events to say the least. This book really straddles the line between young adult contemporary and thriller. It leaned a little too much towards the contemporary side of things for me, but I understand how some people might not feel that way.

Overall, it was a good read, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if it had been more fast-paced. The book just took a little too long to grab my attention and creep me out. I actually DNF’ed it the first time around, but I am glad I gave it another chance.

In the comments, let me know if you prefer fast or slow paced thrillers. Don’t forget to follow my blog if you like bookish content.

Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny