Review: What the Dead Want by Norah Olson

I tried my best with this book. But it was so not a book for me. Sigh. I'm just so glad to be done reading it. Which makes me a bit sad. Thankfully, it wasn't such a long book. But yeah. If it hadn't been a print ARC, I would have DNFed it. It was not written well at all. Ugh. Which always makes me so sad. Sigh.

I'm still giving this book a two star rating, though. Because I didn't hate it. I just felt so meh towards it. I didn't care about the characters at all. And I did hate the writing, sadly. I found a few things about the plot to be a little bit exciting, but not something I would ever read again. I also felt like the ending was rushed.

Gosh. I took a couple of hours break before finishing the rest of this review. And I already feel like I have forgotten most about it, haha. Which is a bit depressing, to be honest. I wish it had been much better. Hmph. But I shall try sharing some about it even so. Though my review will not be all that long, because this book was short, and I felt like nothing really happened, and I don't have all that much to share about it at all. Shrugs. As I have said, the writing was all kinds of bad. I think it was written in third person. I'm unsure, because it was so badly written. I didn't care for Gretchen at all. And I keep forgetting her name. Like, maybe it was Norah, whom is the author, lol, and then I'm thinking Rachel, which isn't even a name in this book. Sigh.

I thought this would be a book about ghosts. And it is. But it was such a small part, in my eyes. The book was so short. And it focused more on Gretchen, and her mom having been missing for years. Sigh. Which was pretty boring, to be honest. And the writing was just so bad. But anyway. There are ghosts. Just boring ones. And how it ended with the ghosts were just so silly. A rushed ending, that didn't even make sense. Sigh. But I did like the mean little girl ghosts, maybe. Though they were a bit silly. Just, ugh.

I'm not really sure what I wish to talk about when it comes to this book. I was so disappointed. I felt like it could have been so much more. Which just makes me sad to think about. There is a creepy old mansion, but it was also written pretty weird. Wasps and ants living inside, which was just not that interesting. Ugh. Gretchen was just told by her old aunt, whom she has never met, that she's getting this mansion, and that she needs to come there to clean the next day. And she just went. Shrugs. I didn't care for this girl at all.

But yeah. Her aunt, Esther. I'm unsure about her. She was interesting a few times, but mostly she just annoyed me oh so much. And then she killed herself. In a bad way that seemed just comical, because it was written so badly. Haaah. I'm ready to forget about this book now. I didn't care for the main character. I didn't care for the other characters. The past about black people and hate were pretty interesting, and awful, but written badly too. So I didn't care too much, sadly. This book could have been good. But wasn't.

I keep wondering if a romance could have saved this book. But I don't think it would have. Not at all. It would have just made the book even worse, haha. Gretchen has one friend, gay Simon. He seemed weird. Shrugs. Then she meets Hope and Hawk. Weird names. And they seem to be best of friends within a few hours, as this book takes place within two days. And it was obvious that Hawk seemed to have feelings for her right away, being jealous when he heard of Simon, and ugh. It was just so weird.

Huge thank you to HarperCollins International for sending me this stunning print ARC. It means the most to me. I'm sorry I didn't like it. I wanted to read it because it looked interesting, and I had hoped it would be a good book. Sigh. Sadly, it wasn't a book for me at all. But I'm glad I gave it a try even so. If anyone else read this book, please let me know what you think of it. So curious. I just felt like it could have been so much better, if it had been written better. Sigh. I just feel that I will forget about this book really fast.

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