Another well crafted story from DWJ in which gender roles are a terrible way to organize a society, never cleaning out your car solves mysteries, and gaslighting will ruin everyones life. ( )

An OK young adult from Jones but not a favorite for me. Told by the journal entries of the young female protagonist, what was to be a few days at Aunt Maria's becomes an unfolding nightmare of social entrapment in a small village. Initially there is no fantasy, then there's appears to be a ghost, then her brother gets turned into a wolf, then things get weird.

Jones avoids cliches. There's something new and interesting on each page. But in this book she took no time to create a foundation of the family unit (Mother, daughter, and brother) so there's nothing to emotionally engage with.

Good for fans for Jones, not the first thing I'd recommend. ( )

Terrifying and perfect. I want to write a 10-book thesis about gender in this book. ( )

Terrifying and perfect. I want to write a 10-book thesis about gender in this book. ( )

I had read a lot about this book before I read it and to some extent I was expecting to be disappointed. It seems this isn't really anyone's favorite DWJ book. However, I was rather surprised to find that I quite liked it. Not as much as my favorites, but it wasn't nearly as grim as I'd expected. All in all I'd say this is just as good a read as DWJ's other books. ( )