This is a gorgeous YA horror novel, but it's got some very intense parts. Be forewarned going in about massively abusive parents (well, mostly one parent) and parental drug addiction. As others have said, this does present a wonderfully creepy forest setting, but it also shows the more realistic, impoverished side of New England (see the drug addiction, etc.). It's a book that doesn't pull any punches, but there are still moments of lightness and joy that shine through. It's also, particularly toward the end, a ravenously angry, rage-filled text, and I loved how it dealt with fury, redemption, victimization, and gaslighting. It's a complex work, for sure, and I'm going to be thinking about it all year. (That ending?!)
(I also didn't realize this was a riff on Cipri's absolutely stunning short story "Which Super Little Dead Girl Are you? Take Our Quiz and Find Out!" in Nightmare Magazine, as I'd've been even more stoked--if such a thing were possible.)

The twisting and winding mystery is beautifully gross. One of those great kinds of thrillers that gets better after a reread, because all of the little pieces click together. Reading was like an immersive experience, not just a story.

I will admit I'm no longer much of a YA reader, and what I do read tends to be nostalgia reads. Despite this, this was an incredibly enjoyable read. The imagery was amazing, and as part of that, I loved that a lot of the symbolism was done using mundane trinkets. It added to the general atmosphere throughout the story.

<spoiler> I also found myself thinking multiple times throughout the book "Wow, this sounds like rural Vermont." Not the "Oh let's go skiing and stay in a cute little B&B" Vermont, but the "drug epidemic reaching towns that are only dirt roads" Vermont. The "Old men in Dunks all day repeating the same stories about the town" Vermont(even though in my town it was the local gas station). While I don't believe this story is specifically set in Vermont, I could feel it, and it was greatly appreciated(and pretty validating to learn in the acknowledgments that the author is from VT). </spoiler>

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.