I really liked this, and it had elements of such a great premise and some really inspired prose. However, I just keep coming back to how heavy-handed it was at times, which really took me out of it. I much preferred the more ambiguous plotting, and the moralizing at the end was so on the nose that it made the "reveal" feel overdone rather than self-evident. I did love the vibe and even came to love the cranky main character, but this felt not-quite-there because of the heavy-handed-ness. However, I'm only being so picky because the bones were so good!! I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for van der Wouden's next work