[issybird]

I think both titles are uninspired, myself; equally poor.

I started this when I thought it was going to be the selection a few months ago. When it didn't win and I didn't like it much, I abandoned it; I would have finished it had I only started it now but I wasn't going to start all over again. As a result, I can only offer my broad impressions until I gave up on it.

I loved the depiction of London, which made for a fantasy story thoroughly grounded in reality. I admit I could have done with a tad less about the traffic which got repetitive, but that's a minor quibble. I also, like Nyssa, really liked the mixed-race protagonist who actually came across as mixed race.

But that leads to one of my issues. While I thought the male characters were complex and well-rounded, the female characters all seemed like tropes. Misogyny was bubbling under in the attitudes from the male characters and that was irritating. But it was the river gods that got me. I was interested in the story as it was shaping up, didn't even mind the zombie and vampire aspect, but the spirits went too far. I wanted to know more about the murder, about Nightingale, about learning how to use magic, and the gods were a distraction and not an interesting one. I thought the author lost control of the story at that point and that's when I gave up.