This was a fun, fairly lighthearted murder mystery, and while I found it charming at certain moments, I ultimately wanted to like it more than I did.

I'm very particular about the middle grade I read, and while this is shelved as YA, it totally reads like middle grade. The main issue I had is that the super casual, lighthearted dialogue and moments of levity felt out of place and really undercut the serious topics being dealt with here. There were so many weirdly casual comments made during the most intense moments of the book—like vampire attacks and other near-death experiences—that just had me scratching my head.

I will say that I started on audio, and once I switched to ebook towards the end of the book, I liked it much more. I think the narration really emphasized the disconnect between the plot and the dialogue, so: maybe read in print over audio?