false 2016005 0061375381 9780061375385 821 261 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2016005.The_Somnambulist 2103666 Jonathan Barnes 1042 349 2 13 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 26 20:32:02 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 11:50:32 -0700 2008
The dust jacket is encrusted with compelling recommendations and comparisons to other favorite writers, but it was much more like being beaten about the head with books by Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke and Arthur Conan Doyle than like reading them. It was definitely rather heavy-handed and if you enjoy those other authors you may also be hit with the feeling that this author is making fun of you.

If those authors are dirty, odd carnivals that you come to in the night and leave believing in magic, then I'm afraid that The Somnambulist is a three ring circus that you may regret shelling out for once you realize it's only going to be an unskilled marionette show.

However, the first words on the first page literally tell you that the book has no literary merit and is a "lurid piece of nonsense." Keeping that in mind it seems to me that the book has accomplished the expectations it's set out for itself and therefore I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1. ]]>