Swift and strange and delicious. I love a good ghost story, and the way this one winds in and out with king-under-the-hill folktales and complicated, painful teenage friendships is impressive. I was a little sad that Blue lacked the strong, funny female friendships that Grace had (her family is terrific, but it's weird how little we find out about her school life), and the exposition is really slow going for the first 100 pages or so... But again and again Stiefvater proves how amazing her characterization skills are. You really get the sense of whole, complex people in her stories, which really is what ties it all together even in the slowest or most improbable passages. You can't put it down, because in trying to do so you realize that the characters have worked their way under your skin.

I am incredibly perplexed by the last paragraph of dialogue in this book, however. I look forward to some elucidation in the sequel!