Thank you for the arc, unfortunately I did not finish it, I just wasn't the right audience for this book.

Doesn't sound interesting anymore. Sounds too cliche as a YA book.

Although this book has a few good ideas, it's ultimately unsuccessful. So much so that I'm actually not sure where to start with my review.

The supernatural metaphysics of the book's world don't make any sense at all. The plot is full of huge holes, just one after the next after the next. Most of the characters are thin or inconsistent. Details of place and history are all off. Clunky romance is thrown in (apparently just because?), and clunky chapter endings abound. Perhaps author Stine was attempting to create "weird fiction" wherein atmosphere and the unknowable carry enough weight that the rest doesn't matter as much, but it just doesn't work. The book just isn't well-written, and has no internal logic.

Esmé Wong could have the makings of an interesting YA protagonist, but like most of the characters in the book she's not given enough consistency, depth, motivation, or emotional verisimilitude. I appreciated that she was of Chinese descent, but because her character was generally so underdeveloped it made this aspect seem at some times completely irrelevant while at other times like an excuse for stereotyping when convenient (e.g. overachieving sister, the fates of their 19th-century ancestors).