First of all, this book takes a TURN that renders it substantially less similar to the bluebeard-esque narrative that it resembles for the first three quarters. That is to the good, and I was taken quite by surprise when it happened. But all the same, I keep reading these books in the hopes of recovering the structural brilliance that so impressed me about The Emperess of Salt and Fortune, and WHen The Tiger Came Down the Mountain. But I think Vo has abandoned that type of storytelling for this series, and I keep getting disappointed, as I was here. I think I might give up on the series, at this point. It's just not giving me what I want out of it.