There's a lot I liked about this book - the story, the characters, the atmosphere - but it was severally disadvantaged by poor editing. It needed to lose about ten chapters worth of writing to prevent it from feeling drawn out and plodding.

Dialogue scenes felt as though they were written for a screenplay more than a novel as conversations were often long when they needed to be concise, repeated frequently, and included unnecessary minutiae.

There were also sub-plots that felt pointless and only padded out the already overstuffed story.

Plus, by the time anything was revealed in the story, it was already really obvious or felt completely pointless or irrelevant. 

I just couldn't keep my enjoyment or interest up with how slow things developed, so I ended up speed reading through the last twenty chapters. 

It's a shame because the actual premise of the story is really good.

Also, Markert falls for the "white standard" trope, only describing the skintone and race of non-white characters.