The problem with this book is that I never got super invested. In anything. Except for that cover, which is legitimately amazing.

The world seemed interesting, but I always felt faintly outside of it. My reaction to even major plot twists was more "well that was interesting" than real horror or shock. I never got very attached to either of the main characters, and almost all of the side characters felt extremely one-dimensional.

Lonan's just problematic from the start. I began intrigued by his backstory, but the way it played out lost any real depth

once it absolved him of literally any responsiblity for the tragedy

. This becomes a running theme.

In general, he seems to exist for the other characters to revolve around him. There's a character we're supposed to hate because basically everything in the world wrong with Lonan's life is his fault, even when it feels very far-fetched. There's Lonan's love interest, who exists for him to long for, despite not having spoken to her for ages when the story starts.

There's an entire long scene in which Lonan goes on and on about how he forgives this person who has wronged him just before this person dies, to this person's face, and I was attempting to read it all with my head in my hands. It was horribly self-indulgent and I was cringing the whole time. (It also seemed very long, though how much of that was because I wanted it to be over before it started I don't know.) I think it was supposed to make us like Lonan more because he is so gosh darn forgiving, but it backfired really badly because all I could think was who does that?!

Admittedly there is also the old healer lady, Mother Ogma, who is kind of amazing in her own right. I would have loved to read a whole story about her.

The Magpie King and Adahy storyline was generally more interesting, but the pacing suffered due to the back-and-forth between that and Lonan's story. I also never quite got attached to anyone there (Adahy, despite being significantly more likeable than Lonan, was kind of oblivious), so it never really took off for me, despite a few interesting developments plot-wise.

The interludes with mythological characters throughout were not badly written and lent themselves well to the atmosphere of the story. The problem was I didn't enjoy them. A chunk of that was Artemis, our trickster character (an archetype I adore), was just a creep. You didn't feel intrigued watching his shenanigans. You weren't definitely rooting for him or rooting for him even though you knew you shouldn't because he was so charismatic. He was just kind of an asshole who somehow got away with things and for no real reason I could fathom they told stories about him. At one point I was rooting for a spider to eat him, and given my horror of the creatures, that should probably tell you enough.

The fact that the first story is an Artemis story probably soured my view on the ones that followed, even the ones with the Magpie King (though those were universally better, I feel).

The idea of magic as Knacks was interesting, and I'd like to have seen a bit more about that than I really got.

Overall I was just hoping for more than I got with this one.