A fun, nicely written book with a Carnivàle flair and lots of hoodoo and creepy southern folklore. Regardless of some occasional groan-worthy dialogue and dislikeable characters, this was a captivating action-driven story with a great sense of time and place. The underlying themes of industrialization, dehumanization, and individuality are cleverly injected, not overblown, and are sure to reach the intended age group. I recently moderated this book with a teen book at my library, and everyone seemed to have fun with it.