Happily, I got an advance copy of this! And I enjoyed it - the characterisation was great. Dennis and Coffin Ada, especially, are compelling characters even though the former is so wet and the latter so foul. Perhaps they're compelling because instead of despite... all I know is that I was consistently entertained by them. More entertained by them than the other London setting, if I'm to be honest.

It also helped, I have to admit, that when the book was focused on Dennis instead of the horrifying other London, Moore seemed to stay further away from the flowery language. He's much more effective when he's pared back a bit; some passages here, especially early on, were a bit of a slog. And that's from someone who likes Dickens and Peake and so forth for the density of their prose. This just didn't feel as balanced - but, as I said, the characterisation makes up for a lot. It's really excellent.