I initially gave this one 4 stars, but then I read a few other books which I also gave 4 stars to, and I realised that this one was not a 4 star book. I had given it 4 stars because it was very much a 4 star book up to the last 15 or so pages, at which point the law of averages dictated that it became a 3 star book, because the last 15 or so pages were really the last pages of a -3 star book. No stars for that ending. A huge, empty sky devoid of any stars at all. Just bits of space rubble and broken space toilets orbiting around a giant, empty planet with a sulfurous atmosphere.

The majority of this book is tolerable and enjoyable for one main reason, really, and that is the fact that the book feels as though it's building up to something incredible. There's deft foreshadowing and magical realism, and a real sense of macabre, sinister forces at work. You keep reading because you have to know how this will play out. Sure, there's not a whole lot of plot at work for the first hundred pages or so, but it's OK because you know the ultimate pay-off is going to be worth it. It has to be, because there's such an overwhelming sense that something is coming.

And then it doesn't. The entire book caves in on itself and collapses. All the foreshadowing, all the sinister magic and folklore motifs are swept aside - no, more accurately, they're just ignored completely and left to rot on some shelf somewhere - in favour of a really, terribly ill-advised transgender subplot, which is just about the only thing in the entire book that hasn't been cleverly foreshadowed. It hasn't been hinted at at all. It comes from nowhere, and it leaves the book in a nowhere place, dangling on a thin thread at the bottom of a well of potential. Not only does it come completely left field, it's troublingly offensive - and I don't mean that in the 'it didn't use the correct terminology' sense, or 'it was poorly researched', and that therefore it was offensive because it didn't do as good a job as it tried to do in representing transgender narratives. I mean it was offensive because it just didn't try at all. I mean it in the very, very real sense that it misrepresents transgender individuals as mentally ill and dangerous. I'm not the sort of reader who expects authors to represent my own viewpoints in their books, but I am the sort of reader who expects an author to be honest about the plot and message of a book, and this author was not. I've never felt so let down by a book in my entire life, and I read several Torchwood novels, so that's really saying something.

Honestly, the 3 stars I did manage to dredge up for this book are entirely based on the strength of the first 80%. If I were to rate it and give more weight to the ending and how utterly angry and disappointed it left me feeling, it would be a struggle to award it 2 stars. I can't recommend this book to anyone at all, unless you have a masochistic streak and like wasting your time on books which promise you the world for 300 pages and then turn around and tell you that 'the world' is clever slang for 'space toilet rubble'. Love yourself, and don't waste your time on this book. It has lied to you.

Edit: you know what? No, this one gets 2 stars. I can't think about it without feeling angry. This one is going straight on the poop shelf.