I wanted to love this, I really did. Words! Etymology! Dictionaries!!! Split timelines across centuries, mysterious phone calls, lovers, queer women! LONDON!!! And yet. And yet it was a bit too infatuated with the mysteries of words and dictionaries and slipperiness, nearly all of the characters in the 19c plot are annoying af, and many of the 21c ones are too. It did make me want to reread that Simon Winchester book about the OED, though, so I guess that's a point in its favor?