I was really looking forward to this book the first moment I read the summary. Horror is usually not my thing, but this also sounded like a mystery/thriller, which is more up my ally. I bought it a long time time ago, and it's one of those books I've had for a very long time before deciding to actually read. Overall, I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about it. There were definitely things I liked, but unfortunately it just seems like the cons outweigh the pros. 
 Stuff I Liked: 
 - The beginning of the book is really intriguing. Actually, the whole first half is. Honestly it had no problem keeping my attention. 
 - I love how it doesn't shy away from graphic stuff. I was actually a little surprised that this was classified as YA, just because there's a lot of gore and sex. 
 - The writing is good, especially for a debut. True, it wasn't the most gorgeous prose or anything, but it was captivating in its own way. 
 Stuff I Disliked: 
 - I get that this book is meant to be confusing. Not really understanding what's going on and how everything's connected is part of a good mystery. But I got annoyed with the frequent flashbacks eventually. Sometimes it was hard to keep up on where the main character actually was at the moment. 
 - Basically I have the same gripe about the poetry. It was just there too often. That's mostly a personal preference though; poetry is alright, but it'll never be something I connect that deeply with. 
 - It annoyed me how they kept saying the the ritual/curse worked by someone trading their soul for a boy's love. Because it wasn't love - it was lust. All it did was make the two have sex, and then the gruesome payment came. 
 - Annaliese/Anna was just... hard to deal with as a protagonist. I'm even a little unsure if that's the right word for her. I never knew how I was supposed to feel about her. Yeah, for the most part she seemed like a normal girl forced into an awful cycle of death. But she was so detached and cold most of the time that I made no emotional connection with her whatsoever. Had she died in the last chapter, I would have been perfectly content with that. 
 - The side characters were annoying. Gwen was alright I guess, but she came off kind of condescending. Logan was very irritating with the way he practically stalked Annaliese. And the parents were alright, but sort of meh. I didn't dislike Dex, but I wasn't very fond of him either. The romance between him and Anna seemed to come from nowhere very quickly. 
 - Nothing is properly explained. Who is the Physician? Where did he come from? How did this cycle begin? 
 - The ending is very, very rushed. I don't understand how she got off the hook so easily. Did the Physician just let her go? Why? What made this time different than all the times before? Was she not trying as hard to stop becoming other girls? Why was it necessary to become the bad guy with the shark mailbox? It was like it went from being so very wrong to perfect in five seconds flat, leaving me behind to wonder what the heck just happened. I totally did not get it. At all. 
 I might read the author's next book out of curiosity, but I'm not sure. I wish I had ended up liking this as much as I wanted to. 
 2.5 stars