This was not my favorite T. Kingfisher. It reminded me of another one of her books, A House with Good Bones and another book by Chuck Wendig, The Staircase in the Woods.

It's kind of a haunted house story, more paranormal with portal magic.

One thing with T. Kingfisher is that despite a lot of her books containing dogs, she's claimed that nothing would ever happen to them...that doesn't stop me from worrying about them.

There were definitely some scary moments here. Despite it not quite being a haunted house story, there were still elements of creepy thing and a house...at night. And I related to some things that our main character, Mouse, did when riddled with fear. Multiple times just shook my head and yelled "NOOOOOOPE" in my car listening to this.

There was a story with in a story element in the middle that I really just didn't care about. The ultimate "reveal" just felt weird and fever dreamy.

Spoiler: I'm also just not a big fan of when horror stories turn pregnancy into a horror element.

It felt like Kingfisher was trying to say something with some messages, but I wasn't sure what the point was when some of the things that happened in the book seemed to counteract them.

Foxy was a fun side character. Though all I pictured was the old woman who spokes in the pink dress in Futurama

What a fun book!

I have a hard time with kids. I find it hard to talk to them. To relate. But I always liked the idea of creating a children's book. NOT because I thought it'd be easy, just because I agree, there's a lot of shit books out there and I liked the idea of creating something I always wanted to see.

Barnett has fun with this, and I really enjoyed it. Ultimately I was left with things to think about while at the same time think I'm over complicating by overthinking.

5 out of 5 stars with the caveat that I would have liked it a bit longer

Love the illustration style and the complexity of emotions explored in this story. Great read.

Will say I was left wanting to know if they ever got out of Minidoka, and how they rebuilt their life if they did, if they could.

Overall though and important story.