This book gets a solid 4 stars from me, even though the story didn't really get started until almost 100 pages in. What it lacked in action, it more than made up for in flair! I am absolutely IN LOVE with the writing style! I could forever linger in the vibrant imagery, but it's not perfect. The protagonist is a teenage boy and the inner voice is at odds with the character. It doesn't necessarily fit with the inner voice of a teen. I didn't mind so much, because his dialogue fit perfectly. It rounded the story out perfectly. 
 I have a nasty (or maybe brilliant) habit of not reading blurbs. I'll skim it to decide if it's something I would enjoy, but I don't like to have too much information when I start reading. A clean slate, and all that. After skipping over this synopsis I was expecting a ghost story, but the peculiar children are more real than I could have possibly imagined. It was my own fault that I didn't find it as creepy as I was expecting, but it had depth. The characters were revealed slowly and left me very curious. There was still so much to be discovered. This series will no doubt have a lot of development left to do. 
 If you're like me and didn't read enough of the synopsis, let me explain. Riggs took a series of legitimate vintage photographs and created this story around them. This just blows my mind. Some of these pictures gave me goosebumps. There was very little photo manipulation done, which is even creepier! There were times when I felt like a detail of the story was added just as an excuse to tack on another picture, but I'm okay with that. The visual dimension helped to situate the story in its setting, so the more pictures there were, the more immersed I became. 
 It was a little slow in the middle where Riggs took a moment to do a little world building, but the ending more than made up for it. The setup for the next book was absolutely brilliant and I can't wait for the sequel! I'm so glad I didn't read this right away, because three years is a long time to wait for a sequel. Can anyone tell me if I will left hanging for a third book? I hate waiting...