I so very much wanted to adore this book. It's a combination of Alice in Wonderland, Neverwhere (Mieville actually thanks Neil Gaiman in the afterword. Total nerd squeal at that!), and The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making. It's also a deliberate flipping of the script of the "chosen one" variety fantasy stories.

The Alice reference should have been my first clue, as I really didn't like that book (I know, wtf is wrong with me, right?). I also started this book 3 times, and have been in the process of reading it FOR YEARS.

What is it about this book that so desperately turned me off? The short answer is length. The story actually seemed to end once, but then it kept going. For way way too long. And perhaps the "restarting" was a deliberate stylistic choice, but it didn't work for me.

The long answer? I'm not sure. I'm still trying to get a bead on why a book with some many of my favorite elements can be such a complete miss for me.