The Castle in the Sea

Ok guys...I'm not even going to try and be nice... this book was an utter waste of my time. :P
I would try and be lenient if it had just not been my style, or there were some minor flaws. But, no. 
The plot was totally cliche, and there was nothing to make it unique or bearable.
The characters had NO depth at all.
The era/setting was so confusing; I read somewhere it was meant to be set in the 1980's or thereabouts, but some of the characters/costumes seemed straight out of the 1600s!?
The "surprise plot twists" in this story were so monotone and predictable. (I really couldn't believe the heroine hadn't figured out who the bad guy was early on- he was clearly insane and up to no good. :P) 
For being such a small book, the story was drawn out and really slow, until the end- where everything was wrapped up super fast and was kind of confusing...and (spoiler?) nearly everyone died; and for those who survived there was no epilogue or follow up. It just ended.

Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. Unless you like confusing, creepy, culturally-messed-up, cliches. (Oh, and don't be confused by the cover- this book had zilch romance. Zilch.) 
Yeeaaaa....

Moving on,