There are things about this book that are just beautiful. There is some magical writing and a few intriguing storylines. But the construction and pacing are where this book lost me. The narrative is told from five different perspectives, there was always the potential for a jumble. And unfortunately, this one fell prey. The constant switch from character to character felt overly jarring and disorienting, despite the chapter headings.

The plot is very slow to unfold and I got very impatient, nearly shelving this as a DNF. The character work was decent, but a few of them felt substantially more fleshed out than the others.

The literary prose will work well for some and I can understand the pull for literary awards based on the content. It just didn't work for me. I am a stickler about my endings, and this one didn't sit right. It felt half-hearted and didn't give me the closure I needed. There was too much of the story left to explore and after a slow paced, drawn out narrative I felt like I needed more reward for my efforts.