This reminded me of Midnight’s Children in some ways. Which is a great thing. The beliefs about the world beyond what most can perceive permeate the narrators recanting of his life, and is so super saturated, it becomes normalized. In reality, even without that the novel would work because it is so well realized. So much happens in really not that much time, and all of the characters are interrogated thoroughly as time marches on.

From the move to corruption and wealth, to death of some, or the constant itinerant nature of his father, perpetually reinventing himself in destructive ways, or his mother who attempts to fuse harmony with that utter chaos—all with a boy who is constantly othered and seems without agency. It’s great at capturing this particular kind of marginalization, at describing just enough of the time and place that you get a clear picture of the world in which they are situated. But the story is heavily rooted in a family drama tinged with the mystery embedded by the way chief aspects of the plot are divulged. Huge shake-ups in the world, as well as, to some degree, if his perceptions of reality are reliable, and what that says about the rest of the story he is telling.

Great, engrossing, probably appealing only to the slow and myopic reader that is okay with a literary approach to fantasy, but for those in the niche, it’s likely to exceed expectations.