An uneven and somewhat unsatisfactory book. Bits of are beautifully written and compelling. The different chapters have different narrators and occupy different time periods; part of the point of the book is that some of the supernatural characters live very long lives and experience time differently from ordinary mortals. Some of the ordinary-mortal characters are well drawn, and either very funny, or very creepy, or sometimes both. The final dystopian chapter, set in a part of Ireland that I have visited (Sheep's Head in West Cork) was mainly very good, and almost stands alone as a piece of writing.
But the overall supernatural frame story wasn't interesting or compelling at all, and the elements of horror (which Mitchell seems to like - see "Slade House" - were a bit repulsive without being interesting.
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