There were definitely some magic moments and beautiful touches. Many of the descriptions of The Other Side were haunting and strange, and some of Liesl's feelings are captured wonderfully. Overall it's fun and a little spooky and charming in its way, and I would definitely have no trouble recommending it to most middle-grade readers. But from an adult perspective, there were just too many off-putting elements here to really captivate me. All of the adult characters are either despicably evil and shallow or flatly good and harmless (and there's only two of the latter), and exist only to provide wacky plot fixes. The women, most upsettingly, are uniform caricatures of petty, catty cruelty. Will & Liesl are not particularly exciting characters either. I found Po's ruminations on death and ghostliness to be the most interesting parts of the book, and I was a bit disappointed when (view spoiler)[he just turned into a pretty blonde boy and disappeared at the end with a smile and a wave. (hide spoiler)] Because I am willing to attribute most of my dislike to cynicism, I will reiterate that plenty of children will probably adore this book, but I was certainly hoping for a more that was never delivered.