This is another incident of my taking a…

This is another incident of my taking a quick peek at the Goodreads rating and got a huge surprise: the book received an average of above 4-star rating — but then, of course, there only have been a few dozens of “reviewers” and I suspect a lot of ARC hounds who’re close and friendly with the author. The book (82) is just a mess. The idea of the book is fine and intriguing, some elements might entertain young readers (spookiness, some implied gore, the weak overcoming the strong, etc.) but the writing is beyond pedestrian: cliches galore, an “unbelievable” young narrator and also a host of caricatures of side characters (while there is an attempt of inserting “real heart” into the story with the back story of the main character); the constantly flawed logic of the world created and weak “explanations” of why things happen in certain ways. It felt like reading a second draft of a 5th-grade student’s creative writing piece: after the teacher has put down all the “Why would so-and-so do this in the story?” or “Why can’t this happen again when it did before?” questions on the document and the students hastily added the “reasons” without reworking the whole piece, taking into account of the whole picture and full narrative arc.