I love Japanese art, history and culture, and mythologies—that’s why I started reading this. The research is excellent, the plot premise original, the characters fascinating, and the settings extraordinary, but I wish the author had used a stronger editor to carve away the excess and reveal the inner beauty of this novel. She doesn’t seem to know how to cut, using three or four lines for what could be said in one, and rather than selecting the most relevant descriptive details, she gives them all, sometimes going on for a page or more without any action or dialog. I like detailed settings but this was too much even for me. Too often, the author writes out unnecessary transitions between scenes that don’t move the plot or develop character or relationships. I found it frustrating and almost decided not to finish. I cared enough about the story to get through it, but I can’t honestly say I enjoyed every page.
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