The Space Between

There's a love story in here, and I know, I know it's not aimed at me, but I can't help feeling that it will disappoint, because it's mostly unnecessary to the plot. Well, I'm clearly not the target audience, and I knew that, but it read to me like the author was occasionally tacking on emotions to otherwise flat characters. The only character with any depth at all is the protagonist, Daphne, and that's possibly because about one in three chapters are from her point of view, first-person. That said, she's interesting enough, in a confused adolescent sort of way.

I also didn't like some of the repetitive phrasing. For instance, early on the phrase “pink, watery blood” (I think) comes up about three times in the space of a couple of pages. It lets down what is otherwise quite smartly written.

Given that, what we have is a reasonable fantasy story in a great setting. The background observations, the scenery and the construction of the demon city are all good. The world Yovanoff builds is better than the sum of its parts.