Um. I'm just not sure what to say about this. My experience reading it was pretty choppy, and at the end all I can think is that this is a book of two halves. I loved the first half - really sincerely loved it, gobbled it down in one sitting and was expecting to give the book five stars.

I did not enjoy the second half, once Patricia and Laurence had grown up. It took me days and days to read this half because I kept stopping and starting, it just didn't hold my interest. I didn't care about older P. and L. or their communities, I thought the schism between magic and science was ludicrously stereotypical (especially the scientists - no scientist I know would ever act like this, they're absolute caricatures). And I was profoundly irked by the absence of the cat. I know that sounds silly, but child-Patricia was thinking at one point that it might be her life's achievement to keep the mog safe from her animal-abusing sister, then she finds out she can go to witch-school and the cat's never mentioned again, because on a dime Patricia apparently stops giving a shit and characterisation is thrown out of the window.

Strong start, and I appreciate the experimentalism of it, but ultimately this fell flat for me. Wish it had ended halfway through while I was still in love with it.