A review by lastblossom
If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens

mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Puzzle companies often use the same template to cut out the shapes of their puzzle pieces. Thus, there exist hundreds of puzzles that feature unique images, but are solved exactly the same way. Many puzzle fans take advantage of this, swapping out pieces between puzzles to create fun and interesting new looks that mesh together multiple images.

This book is a lot like that.

All the genre pieces snap together to form a whole. But if you take a step back, it's a little hard to see a consistent picture. You can see areas where the rest of the picture could be. There could be more history about the ghost and Pen's supposed connection to it. There could be more snappy back and forth between Pen and Neil before the make-outs begin. There could be a lot more digging into their shared history and struggles as authors. Heck, I'd even love to see more excerpts from their respective books. But there just isn't enough room for all of it, because we only have so many pieces to work with.

A review copy was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for a review copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

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