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What was the map magic even doing in the book? Why introduce that and use it only minimally (and unnecessarily), and then come up with a whole different magic for the finale?
Why include Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, for gosh sakes?
Why include the three-garment rule (which, yes, was certainly interesting) and then not make use of it?
Why include so many indistinct characters: Franny, Babs, Polly--why were they there? What did they add to the story?
Why the Cole Porter songs (which, yes, I liked because I like Cole Porter)? But how do they fit the story?
All this stuff--it was generally interesting as local color, but it wasn't well integrated into a novella. In a 500-page book, fine--I like detail and subplots and tangents. But in a novella, I expect everything to serve the story, and here that didn't happen. What little story there was couldn't bear the weight of all these extraneous details.
I'm overgeneralizing, I'm sure. But a week after reading, this is how I remember the book.
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