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I read a blurb of this and was intrigued but in retrospect the phrase “a sophisticated literary fairy tale for the twenty-first century” maybe should have been a red flag for me personally. I have a really hard time with a magical realism-type situation (to be clear this is not the classic definition of magical realism but I'm not sure what to call it? Metaphorical fantasy that doesn't want to commit to being an actual fantasy novel?) I just get so peeved when I'm not sure what's actually supposed to be happening. At first I thought this was a [b:Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West 37442 Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1) Gregory Maguire https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1437733293l/37442.SY75.jpg 1479280]-style kind of satire/in-depth exploration of a fairy tale world but I think it was actually more like a metaphorical breakdown of a 21st-century marriage. Which like honestly I myself am way less interested in.There are definitely some cool ideas (the immortal mouse saga told entirely in parenthetical asides? I want a whole book about that! Maybe that's just Redwall? Was Olga Grushin just writing Redwall fanfiction in the parentheticals of her novel? HMM) and beautiful lines here but overall this book just didn't really work for me. Would probably be better for higher-minded adult literary fiction readers who don't like the idea of reading fantasy novels.
