I wanted to like it. Its opening pages gripped me right away, and I settled in for a gloriously rich and well-told dark and dramatic tale. The writing really is quite beautiful, some of the loveliest I have read.

But then it let me down.

It became frustrating as character after character was introduced and discarded, useless to the plot, or even to the protagonist's character arc.

The mysteries unraveled were disappointing, as the reveal usually came through long side stories conveniently placed. Near the end, a virtual novella outlines, point for point, what actually happened through the voice of a woman who really didn't much matter until then. I couldn't help and wonder why she didn't tell the story from the beginning in the first place? Here at last was the meat of the story, told directly and just as beautifully as the rest of the book. It is, by far, the best section of the book!

There were also so many small plot holes, mistakes in detail, and trailing subplots, it was distracting. Drove me crazy!

I am vaguely dissatisfied, yet still appreciate the myriad beautiful sentences sprinkled throughout. Never have I read such a beautifully written, wholly unimpressive story filled with characters I didn't like and couldn't care about, no matter how hard I tried. I almost DNF'd it. If it weren't for the beautiful writing, I probably would have given up halfway through.

Sigh.