Excellently written in parts, although this is a very grim story (and needs to be) about abuse, murder and the dark age of Ireland. Still, the overall book lacks coherence and also a sense of concept - there is seemingly no analogy, and if this is only about the abuse of the Irish state then I feel other books have managed this with more depth. O'Brien's writing is at times tremendous, but it is not enough to pull this book through for me.