The book had potential but ultimately fell short. The character development was lacking especially for there being so many characters. I had a hard time caring about any of them. Skipping around in time and two story lines is also confusing. It's been accomplished by other authors, but not by Gutcheon. I only finished to book because I was in a book club. I wanted to stop at the third chapter.

I was one of the few (maybe the only) that liked the book. Some thought it was poorly written and incomprehensible. The ghost was scary, but some of us found it hard to follow the two stories (one depression-era, the other late 1800's) and really what the two had to do with each other. It was slow going in places, and I am unromantic enough (read cynical) to have any faith in teenage romance.