Hm........ Didn't like about 70% of this. It didn't get interesting until 200 pages in, and this book isn't that long to begin with. This book isn't very thrilling, it reads more like a historical fiction book. There's nothing really "gothic" about this, either. Also, Chess has to be the most annoying character everrrrr. The timeline skips also bothered the hell out of me. It kept driving me out of the story.