When the Curtain Rises Book

I picked this up completely on a whim. Reading the synopsis, I knew it wasn't my cup of tea, but I was willing to give this book a shot because 1. it's by a Canadian author, 2. it's self-published and 3. It's short. Overall, it's an enjoyable story about magic and magicians and an old m a g i c a l house. Enjoyable, at best, though it did take around 50 pages for me to care for the story, and for a book so short, that's not good. The writing was simple, so the book was quick and easy to read, but I felt like it could have been so much more atmospheric considering the setting it takes place in: an old, magical house. It's unfair to say the setting is "unoriginal", but it definitely feels used before. The characters were well-written enough, just not particularly interesting to me. Nyssa is a friend that our main character, Chloe, makes; she's nice for the most part, but really pushy and insensitive to Chloe's trauma, and I wish that was addressed a little better. I can't help but think I would've enjoyed this a lot more had I been younger, since it's a very "happy" feeling story with straightforward morals.