So…I picked up this book because it made me think of point horror books, and I was immediately intrigued by the title. Plus, the blurb sparked my curiosity.

I would definitely say that the opening scene caught my attention. It was a very powerful way to start the book, and if the rest of the book had kept that feel, I would have enjoyed it a lot more than I actually did. As it was…there were parts of this book where I definitely felt like I was reading a ‘men writing women badly’ post. And Charlotte lost me when she started talking about the fact that all the fathers…sorry, husbands, not fathers…wanted to be the boyfriend hiding in the shadows. Like…not every father is going to perv on the young babysitter. Reading that definitely gave me the ick. I also thought the whole thing about the inhaler showed a lack of research – there are different types of inhalers, so claiming that the inhaler worked the same as every other inhaler made me think that Charlotte hadn’t really done her research. And given the notes from the author at the end about everything having some meaning later on…I was expecting the inhaler to have something to do with the plot later on. (It didn’t).

I really liked the idea of the funny places in this book, but at some point, I think they lost their effectiveness. I also found myself questioning the rules of the other place. Considering what’s revealed later about how everything worked, I was second-guessing the whole thing with all of the spirits…and the way the other house worked.

I did think that the whole two spirit thing would have something to do with the plot later on…again, after reading the comment about everything in the book being important…but I wasn’t able to determine how that fit in. I mean, unless it was because of the events that happened in the funny places, but from what little I understand of that concept, the whole stealing bodies thing didn’t have anything to do with that.

There were some genuinely creepy moments in this book…such as the scene where Charlotte watches what happened in the bathroom mirror. But that left me with more questions than answers. I mean, why was the water boiling? That made no sense with what was revealed about what had really happened. And apparently, the stories spread around the school were actually what had really happened? That was disappointing, as I’d originally thought that the rumours were just the normal stories that got bigger and more outlandish with each retelling, going further and further from the truth.

All told, I was kind of disappointed in this book. It had such a promising start…but by the end of the book, I wasn’t left with any kind of emotional payoff. It felt like it was perhaps open for a sequel…but if a sequel is written, I can’t really see how it would differ compared to the book I’d just finished reading.