I was ultimately disappointed by this - I was a huge fan of Hall's first novel 'The Familiars' - I loved it's mysticism and magic realism, but this was grounded in reality and lacked the flashes of stunning imagination in that earlier book.
The dual perspectives of the narration were good, but ultimately I didn't particularly like any of the characters - and the frigid wife tolerating husbands infidelity because she abhors sex trope is plain boring now! (And all I could think of was Bert in Mary Poppins everytime Lyle cropped up being all chirpy and heart of gold)
The plot relied on coincidence, and some massive abrupt changes of character to a ridiculous degree in order to speed through the ending to tie up all lose ends and ensure everyone lived Happily Ever After.
The dual perspectives of the narration were good, but ultimately I didn't particularly like any of the characters - and the frigid wife tolerating husbands infidelity because she abhors sex trope is plain boring now! (And all I could think of was Bert in Mary Poppins everytime Lyle cropped up being all chirpy and heart of gold)
The plot relied on coincidence, and some massive abrupt changes of character to a ridiculous degree in order to speed through the ending to tie up all lose ends and ensure everyone lived Happily Ever After.