Absolutely horrifying. I read this initially about 20 years ago, and I enjoyed it at the time, but it didn't really impact me. Fast forward to now and I have a toddler myself and this book became the stuff of nightmares. I loved and dreaded every minute of this book.

Saw this poster over on IO9. It had 200 Stephen King references. Figured I‘d share! I put the link below because the poster got a bit cut off on the upload.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/there-are-almost-200-stephen-king-references-on-this-po-...

Ok, so this book is very hard to classify. It blends dark fairy tales that have a modern skew with some elements of horror. At its core this book is about family and love, and how our modern lifestyle can make it easier for these to come under assault.
As a parent there were some scenes that were difficult to get through, and I found myself wincing and cringing more than once, but nothing was gratuitous, and the authors visual style is amazing.

Wow was this a really good book. It has the same sense of melancholy that you get with The Book Thief, but other than that and the time period they are very different books.
I will avoid specifics as much as possible to keep from spoiling anything, but you follow a young Parisian girl, and a young man from Germany through tragedies and triumphs during WW2. If you are looking for something with all the feels, this one may be right up your alley.

I would say that overall I enjoyed this book, but it wasn‘t quite as gripping as The Girl With All The Gifts.
I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys a good supernatural mystery light on the scares. The book has a very cool premise, but it didn‘t quite give me the creeps that I was hoping for. It is still a very solid read however.