Extra copy. Reserved for Firegirl (tag). Mailed 04/27/16.

Arrived safe and sound, thank you! I enjoy Matt Ruff's work and am looking forward to this.

Whew. I got through it.

I should lead in with the fact that I do like Ruff's work. I read other books by him and enjoyed them quite a lot, which is why I was interested to read this - what I understand to be his first novel. I must say, had this been my introduction to him, I likely wouldn't have read anything more. This is a tiring, slightly confusing, very trite book. Ruff has lumped together several stories which are essentially the same (star-crossed lovers, battles between fairies and rats, wars/friendships between dogs and cats, conflicts between fraternities) , all basic retellings of other stories, and set them at his (obvious very beloved) Cornell University. This book *could* have been set anywhere, so why all the specific comments and locations other than the author having a deep love for his alma mater? Perhaps some people walk away from this with a desire to visit the campus and see how it matches up to Ruff's painted picture - I did not.

It isn't all bad -- there are some nice written bits and it is passingly interesting to see how many different ways one can tell the same story at the same time, but in the end I just didn't care for it. Honestly, had it not been the only book I had with me on a business trip, I likely wouldn't have finished it. But I did, and I appreciate the opportunity to do so.

Left on a bench outside the main entrance as part of the 2018 "Keep Them Moving" and "52 Towns in 52 Weeks" release challenges.