This book doesn't have much in the way of plot, although some revelations about the main character's past are finally gotten to by the end of the book, after 400 pages of hinting. The characters were interesting for a while, but the slowness of the story moving forward makes the reader tired of them. Also, tired of all the secondary characters. And almost every character in the book is nasty and unpleasant in some way. In a lot of ways, the book is very brutal and grotesque, and bloody and gross, and these things keep coming at the reader, page after page, until you get a bit fed up with it.

I struggled to finish this book. There were certainly interesting aspects of it, and the plot did move along however sluggishly, and toward the end a lot of the elements come together, but overall I got tired of being mired in all the disgusting muck, the miserable lives of the characters, and the constant evilness of the wretched spirits.