I had a hard time staying in the tone of this story; this was a mood that required focus, a removal of distractions, and I repeatedly failed to be in those kinds of environments while reading it.

This isn't my first adventure with Mieville, but it was possibly the most challenging for me, as I felt no connection to any of the characters. The young boy is an unreliable narrator, and Mieville's writing is so poetic and atmospheric that our protagonist feels more like a witness than an actor, and the other characters, while interestingly presented, weren't actor either, just obstacles against which our narrator crashed.