The story starts off slowly, laying the foundation. We meet Lucretia, Loochie, her family, and her ailing friend Sunny. Loochie is twelve and anxious to be older; she worries that she's not developing as quickly as other girls in her class and she's worried about Sunny's health while at the same time in denial about it. I was expecting a dark fantasy/horror story but what I got was a contemporary dark fantasy with hints of "Alice in Wonderland" set in an inner-city. It's both gritty and horrific. The Kroons sound like an urban myth but they are all too real. 
 "Lucretia and the Kroons" is a horror story, a love story, a story of friendship, loyalty, hope, and death. A mix of the expected and the unexpected, it's a dark story; some children might find the material difficult to deal with but many young teens and tweens will be able to relate to Loochie and her life. A plus for me was that both Loochie and Sunny are people of color, not white, and yet that wasn't the point of the story, it was just part of who they were. I appreciate stories where there's diversity but it's just part of the story and isn't the point. 
 Trigger warnings- children dying and cancer.