3.5 ⭐️

i received this as a gift from meva who annotated it for me, and i honestly think that having it annotated is what made it more enjoyable to read. i was thoroughly entertained throughout the entire story, the pacing was ideal, and there were times when the writing had me pausing to soak it in. 

however, it this the most amazing thriller/mystery i have read? no. the structure of it i can appreciate, but the huge chunks of info dumping at random points while not answering any other questions started to irritate me a little bit. it was fun, but i usually have more fun with little reveals here and there or more misleading situations rather than a million questions with 0 answers. 

the characters really reminded me of the cast of ‘it’ (the newer movie), and i enjoyed that. the setting was very stranger things x it, and personally i loved the vibe. certain character relationships did feel very stephen king coded (nicky with her weird rev dad reminded me of beverly and her dad from it) 

i wish we got more of mr halloran (halloween), because it feels like his character was a little bit wasted. there was more that could’ve been done. i honestly wish he was wrongly imprisoned instead, and had some sort of release redemption at the end. the ending felt a bit rushed. also i think i missed something here but who drew the chalk throughout the book??? (i know eddie did it for the body, but who did it on the driveway and at the funeral??) 

mickey was awful, hoppo was my fav (can’t even be mad at that he killed mickey), fat gav im kinda indifferent to (im sorry for your legs gav) 

EDDIE on the other hand… this man is so weird and as much as i feel bad and sad for the memory loss allusion at the end (anything alzheimers breaks me), him stealing the head and STILL KEEPING IT- nah see. my pity goes away. 

overall this was a fun time, i enjoyed reading the annotated version. i would still recommend it for a quick fairly easy adult mystery/thriller