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Well, this sure is a book.

I suppose if you specialize in writing The Weird it's only a matter of time before you go FULL WEIRD and dive right into experimental fiction, constructing a swirly atmospheric nearly plotless time-shifting POV-shifting planet-shifting pre- and post- and post-post apocalyptic prose poem.

This book is technically a sequel to Borne, I suppose, but very much unlike it, and although there are many ties back to Borne (I spent a large amount of time returning to Borne and searching for characters and references while I read this book) it is not really in the same style, and if you like a conventional narrative you're going to have a lot of trouble with this book. I did not know what to expect from this book when I bought it (I didn't even know it was Borne #2, I have not been paying attention) and it was ...not what I expected. I found it both difficult to read, surreal, and disturbing, and it dragged me along for the ride even though I had little to no clue what was going on, even after I was done. Equal parts "wait, what" and "wow."

The original Nancy Drew reread continues. "Lilac Inn" is the original 1930 edition.

For the first three books in this series my impression had been generally "dated, racist, but better than I expected." This book breaks that pattern. It is still dated and racist/classist (the primary villains here are poor and Irish), but it seemed to take a big step down in quality from the first three.

Interestingly, in this edition (from Applewood) there is a forward from Mildred Wirt Benson, the original author of the first Nancy Drew books for the syndicate that produced them. She explains in the forward that the original owner of the syndicate had died, and his daughters had taken over. With the transition, she had been instructed to make Nancy much less bold of a character and to focus more on domestic tasks (Nancy spends the first quarter of the book interviewing housekeepers...zzzzzz). This explains a lot.

Also up to this point the books had been told in a close third person POV -- the mystery is revealed only through what Nancy herself experiences, which makes Nancy a convenient stand-in for the reader -- but in this book there are chapters in which Nancy does not appear at all, and it makes the book feel narratively clumsy on top of everything else that was disappointing.

Holy crap I adored this book. It is a bright and swirly and beautifully told story about storytelling, a fairy tale that is a metaphor for a fairy tale, and a puzzle-story with several intertwined self-referential narratives. It is the first book I’ve read in a long time that makes me instantly want to go back to read it a second time so that I can understand how all the parts fit together. This is exactly the kind of book I am crazy for, and it hit every heart-shaped button I have in my soul.

I dithered between four and five stars because sadly I thought many of the characterizations were weak, and the emotional beats could feel unearned. I was genuinely surprised by the central romance, because I did not feel it had been signaled at all before it actually happened. But the book is strong enough in every other way that I could forgive that, so it gets five stars anyhow.

I just cannot get over how good this book is.

On the face of it this book is about a stuffy old British butler who goes on a road trip and talks about his life. If you’re used to books with more plot, or you are sick to death of stoic old white guys who can’t feel their feelings, this might be a bit trying. (and many of the one-star reviews of this book would indicate it is VERY trying for a lot of people).

But for me the beauty of this book lies in the spaces between words, in the events that aren't actually described, and in the differences between how the main character believed things should work, versus how he thinks they did work, versus how they actually happened. It is beautifully and subtly crafted and the best kind of fictional writerly magic. One of the best books I’ve ever read.