** spoiler alert ** 
 I liked this book. Even though it was a VERY quick read and an easy read at that, it kept me interested. 
 That being said, this is not a scary story by ANY means. The book opens with a VERY interesting mystery. A girl from the small community of Cryer's Cross has mysteriously gone missing and no one can figure out what happened to her. 
 Once the main character's best friend goes missing in the same way, the story end up taking a turn in the romantic direction when the main character be-friends the new kid in town and leans on him through her grief. The mystery end up basically disappearing for nearly the rest of the novel at that point until about the last 30 pages or so. 
 The supernatural aspect of the story really isn't what made this book a three star as apposed to a four star for me. Neither was the large romantic storyline embedded in the center. what I didn't like about the story was the ending. How the main character ended up discovering the truth behind all the weirdness going on. I would have been so much more into the story if we were discovering the history of the desk through visions AS Kendall is becoming consumed by the spirits. The fact that she was totally clueless through the possession and THEN the history of the desk gets told to her after the fact totally took the excitement away for me. I imagine if this was to become a movie, they likely will have her have visions so we can see the gruesome events that lead up to these kids becoming possessed by these very disturbed and tortured spirits. And I would be happy with that. 
 This isn't a scary story, it's a love story first and a mystery second, and if you go into it knowing that, you will likely enjoy it. 
 As an added side note, I recently discovered that this novel is published as "The Missing" in the UK. I like that title better as well as the cover of the UK book better. It suits the theme and tone of the book so much more than the cover here in North America.