This is definitely a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” I have not been enjoying YA as much for the last couple of years, but this sounded so up my alley (gothic horror with themes of colonialism? c’mon!) that I felt I had to try it. I just couldn’t get past the YA of it all.

I will say! Even though narration of the audiobook is not great, you can still tell that the writing itself is beautiful! I’m gonna keep an eye out for this author’s future work. And if/when I’m in the mood for some YA horror, I can see myself taking another stab at this. I’m happy teens have such interesting, well-written books to choose from these days.