I have mixed feelings on this one. A husband, wife, their young daughter, and dog Cookie (who is the only character's name I can spell or pronounce) move into a beautiful brand new apartment which overlooks a graveyard and crematorium. In fact on some days you can see the smoke of burning bodies drifting towards the windows. From the minute they move in odd things start happening. Their pet bird dies their very first night in their new home, and as if that is not enough of a bad omen, right away the mom hears of a tragedy that occurred when a child in the neighborhood was killed on his way to kindergarten. They want to leave.. but something seems intent on making them stay.The book definitely held my interest however I expected it to be scarier. Some of the scariest horror movies have come from Japan and have Americanized versions so I guess I expected the same from this book. The terror factor just wasn't there for me. I would occasionally come upon a word that just seemed an odd choice. I don't know if something was lost in translation from Japanese or if it is due to the time period of the book (late 80s) but some things just seemed a bit off. For example I don't think little girls still said things like "oh goody" Of course I could be wrong but I just don't think I have heard that since maybe the last time I watched an old black and white 50s sit com. When I first started the book I kind of stalled each time I came to a name, and tried to sound it out and figure out how to pronounce it. I don't have a clue how to pronounce Japanese names so I gave up and began to think of the main characters as Maisy, Terry and Tammy. I can't say I actually liked any of the characters, including the brother and his wife. This was not a "bad" book it was just not very scary.
I would rate it 3 and a half of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review.