i'm not sure how to articulate this into one fluid paragraph so it's going to be a list 😂

things i liked:

• the plot!! the mystery was really engaging (although a tiny bit confusing at times) and i thoroughly enjoyed watching stephen unravel it🙂‍↕️ and btw stephen is so COOL.
• the creepiness oh yes. the atmosphere, the setting, the magic being performed, the hauntings and the crimes committed are all so dark and i live for a story that gives me the creeps unfortunately
• the sarcasm/humor in this made me chuckle out loud quite a few times, and in general the writing style is really light and easy to read, you literally fly through it!

things i didn't like:

• there were quite a few typos (missing words especially) 🥲 i have no idea how a book comes out of editing with this many little mistakes lol. it crossed my mind that maybe it's just the ebook version that's got this issue, maybe something went wrong during formatting or smth (?? im grasping at straws here)
• the astonishing insistence on reminding the reader of stephen's height every other sentence. i get that the author wanted it to be known he's short but he's referred to as the "smaller man"/"shorter man"/"little man" quite literally 90% of the time, which gets really annoying really quick :((((
• the dynamic between crane and stephen feels a little bit,,, stereotyped (?) at times. especially in the explicit scenes. and don't get me wrong, i really love some power dynamics/size difference in my smut (lol) but idk, it felt kind of too emphasized at times ??

okay it might not sound so but overall i enjoyed this book soooo much !!! despite not liking a few things i was completely engrossed in the plot and i would have probably read this in one day if i'd had the chance :') might continue the series eventually just to see my man stephen work his way out of some new spooky affair 👻