This was very promising at the start. The source or primary documents created for this is an achievement. However, they’re also lost on me. As the two protagonists are academics in Victorian poets, uncovering a monumental find regarding two fictional relative titans that would make scholars rethink their entire fields regarding them, the reader, along with them, consumes the documents that propels the story forward. At the same time, life imitating art (within art) the two academics also mimic a will-they-won’t-they perhaps blossoming romance.

If I were at all interested in the large amounts of poetry and the victorians, or even has a familiarity with the stocking horse titans they are based on, I’m sure I’d have gotten more out of this. As is, the meta component mostly interested me. It also got more contrived and convoluted as it went on. Culminating into a tropey and wildly inane ending, at least from my point of view. It is poetic (of course), but also, especially when taking into account Val and Euan’s sudden integration of the plot, just made the whole thing seem very broken, even when fun.

Again, It’s a feat constructing such a thing as this. Yet it’s also, I think, less interesting than had the primary documents not been present, and their contents summarized for the reader. Since they have to be later on anyways, and the actual consumption of them somewhat tedious, there’s only the satisfaction of seeing the interplay between the two stories. It isn’t enough.