The Book Of Old Cases is a very polarizing book - I definitely preferred the first half to the second, I liked that it was more grounded perhaps and I could enjoy the atmosphere a bit more. I stand by that Lily being introduced immediately threw me out of enjoying this book half as much. I just found her... unrealistic? Borderline a moustache twirling, cape wearing villain that just hammed up any scene she was in. The other characters were fine, no real comments or complaints about them, Beth was likely my favourite character out of the lot because much like her half-sister she also was over-the-top but in a much less annoying way.
I do have a lot of praise for the writing style which is why I'm glad that I have The Sundown Motel to read soon too because that was a big saving grace for me. Certain chapters like 42 were really well-written and she really has a knack for making it easy to picture.
It wasn't that I disliked the supernatural elements, I suppose in my mind I pictured more of story interwoven around the plausible deniability that Beth was some kind of grief-ridden lunatic imagining that she couldn't leave the mansion or if she was genuinely being haunted. Or hell if the ghosts had been more of a factor than a "here's what really happened" device. But it was a means to wrap everything up so I can't really complain about narrative choices.
Shea is equal parts kind of annoying and realistic - I read a comment earlier that she was giving "I'm not like other girls" which I can see as totally valid but in agreement with the response, it's related to her trauma which really kind of helped to shape a lot of her character and why she behaves the way she does. Though I will admit the whole scene with her threatening her sister by reading creepy murder facts off to whoever her sister was trying to set her up with during that dinner made me cringe back to my spine, this book is set in 2017 - the true crime community was and is thriving- that is not special, you are not giving Patrick Bateman talking about Ed Gein energy here, I understand that you have found solace or whatever in true crime to cope with your own run-in with something horrific but... come on, that's embarrassing behaviour.
I didn't really like her much (a big hit of that coming from that scene in particular) but it's kind of blotted out by how much I loathed whenever Lily was on the page. I just hate that the evil half-sister bit totally took away all premise of mystery and intrigue that was being sewn through the first half.
But yeah, it's a solid 3 stars for me, so much of that is held up by it being so well-written, it's just a shame that it fell apart for me.