An Ikea-like store as horror setting - this makes perfect sense, given how labyrinthine those stores are. Part parody, part horror, and part not very subtle commentary on modern retail workhouses. This was tremendous fun.

Although this kept me reading and was imaginatively gruesome in places, the ending disappointed me so much that I am now exasperated with the whole book. The characters were also rather flat.

The family dynamics were scarier than the supernatural elements. It's more a murder mystery and common of age story than a story about hauntings.

I kept imagining the protagonist, Cas, as a high school age Dean Wincester, traveling across the continent dispatching ghosts. He has a bit of that attitude. Yet, it wasn't all that scary. As I read I kept thinking that if I saw this story on the big screen I would be horrified. They're were many gruesome developments, but because Cas never seemed really terrified, the story didn't make me jump at every noise the way some do.

"He drives a Ford Tempo. It's about six different shades of gray and sounds like a very angry kid pretending to drive a motorboat in the bathtub. "

A gentle ghost story. if you're looking for something just a bit otherworldly but not overly scary for Halloween, this is a good fit.

Two little girls disappear on their sister Arden's watch, and when they are never found the story becoms a sensational cold case. The adult Arden returns to her childhood home seeming closure. A story about the unreliability of memory.

I'm a sucker for parallel universe novels.

I want to live in this book.

I'm enjoying this series, but I would happily slap Ceony for her stupid, reckless disregard for everyone's safety. She makes some mind-bendingly stupid decisions that anyone could see would be disastrous. I find it hard to believe she is so oblivious to the big, glaring flaws in her plans, so I was pretty impatient with her. I adore the magic in her world, which will keep me reading despite my frustration.

"Now I know that grief is a whetstone. It sharpens all your love, all your happiest memories, into blades that tear you apart from within. "

"I've learned that to be courageous is to feel fear within, every step of the way. Courage does not take over, it fights and struggles through every word you say and every step you take. It‘s a battle or a dance as to whether to let it pervade. It takes courage to overcome, bit it takes extreme great to be courageous."

Frank charmed me from start to finish.

"Frank was wearing a loud plaid zoot suit I'd never seen before, with taxi-yellow suspenders, yellow pocket handkerchief, dice cuff links, and two-tone shoes. Xander, in ancient jeans and a t-shirt, looked like he was having a session with his new bookie, Little Frankie, whom he'd meet while working as a grip on the set of a remake of Guys and Dolls."