This is an absolute delight.

Written in the style of a serialised, winding and could-have-used-an-edit Victorian novel, it is a delicious dig at academics (and academic historians in particular) that I chuckled at, while at the same time being extremely "it me". This is historical fiction with magic chucked in, a lot of (historical) fairy lore, some Lord Byron being extremely Lord Byron, and plenty of discursive footnotes.

The footnotes sold me on this thing, lets be real.

I loved it.