I loved this. I almost didn’t read it because I thought it’d be over-the-top mean girl vitriol and high school politics. This is not that. It was surprisingly deep, thoughtful, and spooky too. 

 

Energy: Consoling. Diligent. Impassioned.   

 

🐕 Howls: Flashbacks can feel disruptive because they seem to happen out of nowhere and have same characters and a studio too. Life-or-death moment where a character stops to interview the Big Bad for the reader’s sake instead of taking the chance to escape (doesn’t happen for long, but still lol). 

 

🐩 Tail Wags: Eerie, immersive atmosphere. Effortless imaginings. Believable friends, dialogue, and group dynamics. Scary (and fun) to read at night. 

 

Scene: 🇮🇪 Set in ancestral estate at Wren Hall in Ireland

Perspective: A high school student facing expulsion from their elite high school (and their friend group) after a drunken incident. An invite extended by their former friend to join everyone at their family estate for a Samhain/Halloween party is meant to make amends and help everyone to move past it. 

Timeline: Current (2020s) in late autumn, with flashbacks to the past summer.  

 

🤓 Reader Role: Sympathetic listener, following the highs and lows of the main character’s journey and challenges. 

🗺️ World-Building: Cinematic and immersive

🔥 Fuel: Gradually revealing backstory. Character and friend evolutions. Strange, creepy, ominous happenings. What did Meg do? Where are some of the friends? Why is their host being strange? Will romance rekindle… should it? Is something out to get them?

📖 Cred: Psychological folklore/cultural realism

 

Rain. Dust. Halloween costumes. Slimy lake water. Art studios. Paint on canvas. Hyacinths. Mildewed air. Howling winds. Cobwebs. Soggy turf. Jack-o’-lanterns. Woodsmoke. Muddy footprints. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Misogyny, body shaming (clothing, style, ‘slut’-shaming). Prejudice, classism (against local Irish, housekeeping staff, custodians). Anger/rage. Alcohol, intoxication (parties, social drinking). Elitism. Nicotine (cigarettes). Drug use (off page very brief mention; coke). Bullying (ghosting, snide comments, relational aggression aka mean-girling). Flooding. Drowning. Starvation, poverty, famine (off page, mention). Murder. Death. Sexual content (brief descriptions; making out, first time, arousal). Vomit. Drugging. Psychopathy/personality disorder. Eating disorder (implied; excessive weight loss).  

 

Rep: British. Irish. Pale and freckled skin tones. Cisgender. Heterosexual. Gay. 

 

📚 Format: Library Digital