The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of sisterhood turned toxic, imaginary monsters brought to life, and secrets that won’t stay buried. Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. And moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over as someone different. In their isolated new … someone different.
In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.
Then Deirdre disappears.
And when something awful comes scratching at Skye’s window in the middle of the night, claiming Skye’s the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.
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**spoiler alert** This book left me feeling…icky. I thought about giving this a one star rating because the characters were annoying, the plot felt forced and that ending, well I personally hated it. But it was written decently enough to be considered an ok novel, plus I realize I may have a little bias from the beginning. I felt the whole withholding secrets of the main character’s past was quite annoying and then when it was actually revealed it turned out to be kind of a let down, nothing surprising based on the foreshadowing given. The characters are also very young so somewhat unrelatable for me, and their immaturity caused all the drama in this novel including the main plot between the sisters. If these had been adult characters, there wouldn’t have been a plot. It was book about bad decisions and in the end, it still felt like the main character would continue to make them and had learned nothing. I wanted to enjoy this but it was too immature and frustrating. There was really no point in this narrative that I had my expectations met. That all being said, it was written decently as far as skill goes. It had a few quotable lines but that’s really all I enjoyed about this.
The world-building aspect is deep and creative; I feel that the plot had great potential, especially towards the beginning. However, the second half of the book seemed like a totally different story. The characters, in my opinion, became unbearable and irritating as the pages went on. It felt very rushed and I almost have to think perhaps the author was forced to make it end the way it did.
The author has talent in writing, and that is something I highly commend her for. However, I feel the plot fell through and I ended the book frustrated, confused, and upset.
Skye and her younger sister Deirdre are very different and Skye spends most of her time hanging out with Deirdre and protecting her from bullies. But Skye is ready to move on and make friends, so when they move across the country Skye knows that this is her chance. She makes friends, but Deirdre isn’t happy about it. She feels like Skye is abandoning her. Deirdre starts making her own “friends” out of sticks and bones and when she goes missing, Skye soon finds out that there is more to Deirdre’s friends than just sticks and bones.
Skye tries so hard throughout the book to be a good sister to Deirdre and I couldn’t help but feel bad for her. Deirdre is very manipulating. She uses her mental state to guilt Skye into staying with her. I can understand Skye’s need to get away. I also felt that Skye’s parents were always more on Deirdre’s side than Skye’s. Well, her mom was as least. Her dad tried. The friends Skye makes are an interesting bunch, but I only ever trusted William. He seemed the most honest.
The story itself is unique and intriguing. It gets very dark at times and some of the decisions made were hard for me to comprehend. The “monsters” were so freaky and well described that it wasn’t hard to feel fear along with Skye. They were definitely something I would not want to encounter. This is a well written story with some psychological aspects that will keep readers wondering.
(Advanced reader copy courtesy of NetGalley)