The first half of this book was nothing special. It was quite repetitive. The protagonist's determination to leave the village, which began as the primary motivation for her to do literally anything, petered out unexpectedly. I found the dialogue mismatched the time period - it felt very modern, but the book was set in like, some time before electricity and cars.

 The second half of the novel was actually very good. Finally, a book with real monsters in it. So what if they were rip off vampire/werewolves??? At least they were animalistic creatures, as opposed to a sort of vacuous horror that's never properly described. And there was an underlying political commentary that existed ALONGSIDE the monsters!! I was a big fan of the systemic change that occurred at the end [I love a book with a capitalist millowner].

Anyway, I added an entire star for the last 5 pages. The ending was masterfully done, unexpected, and a brave authorial decision. As YA goes, this was a more than acceptable offering.