I really don't know what I think of this book. It was interesting, the characters were well done, and some crazy shit happens--and yet, it was somehow unsatisfying and lacked "hook." The problem could be that the tension wasn't maintained very well throughout, so there was no impetus to read it. Near the end, I was riveted for about 50 pages, but the rest of the time I just plodded along, waiting for something to happen. The main saving grace was the writing, which was lovely and funny and told the (slightly lame) story well. 
 Harry Potter, this ain't. It wasn't even all that similar to me; I saw enough specific differences to overshadow the general similarities, and the tone and style were radically different. And unlike Harry Potter, this book isn't my favorite by a rather wide margin.