As an animal lover, I simply adored Maya's abilities. I wish on a daily basis that I could communicate with animals so as to help them more. Maya herself is a strong protagonist that is totally loveable and more importantly, believable. She has her strengths and her faults; she's proud and independent, yet tends to hold grudges. And Rafe. I simply adored how multifaceted he was. In fact, ALL of the characters, including the minor seem to be three-dimensional, a true test of a good writer. Armstrong seems to understand exactly how much positive and negative she needs to add to her characters to make them as real as possible without tipping the balance and making them totally fake, a feat that many authors in the YA genre don't seem capable of. The scenery is beautifully well-done; who doesn't love a lush, mysterious forest where two people fall in love and another gets brutally attacked and killed almost simultaneously?! Pair that with an equally perplexing tattoo shop where a lady rants and raves cryptically and I am SO in. 
 The town itself is enigmatic. Just what is the reason behind it? 
 All of the good being said, the pace was perpetually ramped up, which is a good and bad thing for my taste. I had no time to digest new developments before more popped up, giving me the feeling of my head spinning a complete 360. That's more personal taste than writing style, and you may enjoy your stories to race at a break-neck pace. I'd have liked more questions to be answered before the end. I suppose they'll be answered in the sequel, but about 20,000 questions are hinted at and only a handful were cleared up.