This book is sort of a genre-bender: part paranormal mystery, part coming-of-age, part thriller. Really liked how raw and ugly and messy Avicenna's reaction to her mother's disappearance was.
Also liked the almost romance that was more about two kindred souls having gone through shit and still going through it but finding a friend in the dark. Really liked how Simon's arc was written, how Avi assumed and had the wrong impression of him.
Her relationship with Hugh was great. How he could have been Tall, Dark and Handsome but Avi's awareness of it cut that right off, and the thereafter subversion of that.
I just really liked how this book dealt with loss.