Ever been hanging out with your group of friends and one of them - a sort of outsider - keeps trying to make jokes and fit in, which only makes you and your friends smile uncomfortably at each other?That's what I felt while reading this book.I read this after being happily surprised with Anna Dressed in Blood (although I never once bought the romance angle), but also read it while reading Game, Barry Lyga's sequel to I Hunt Killers. This ended up being sort of a mistake, as I couldn't read Girl of Nightmares without yearning for Game, or comparing GoN to it incessantly. GoN seems to stumble along lack of action, with a few plot points that reminded me of Indiana Jones movies and Harry Potter (although I wouldn't say this came close to anything like theft, or "pastiche" - Blake is indeed a talent in her own right). I failed to connect with anyone or anything, except Cas's mother. I wanted to read more about her, but only her. Everyone else was boring or predictable, and in Carmel's case, had a name so insipid that it was distracting every time I saw it on the page. Then there were the odd descriptions. A few examples:"Irritation creeps up my arms, staring in the hot dishwater and ending in my clenched jaw.""We go down the stairs, making as little noise as possible. But I suppose that's not necessary, considering the rukus we made at three in the morning. I expected all the lights to come on and for the innkeeper to bang down the door and rush in holding a baseball bat. Except they don't play baseball in this country. So maybe they would have been holding a cricket bat, or just a big stick, I don't know."My tepid response to GoN doesn't have me writing off Blake, but if there is a third installation to this series, it's going to take a lot of gushing from my GR buddies for me to be interested. At the end of the day, I just didn't care.