on the whole symmetry and multi-directional love deal. On one level it appeals to me, that it is not a simple matter of love and returned love in two directions, that you get it flowing in all directions around the central three.

But I wish it would either have been more developed or dispensed with. At the moment it reads a little as if he was worried that we wouldn't think Belmonte was cool unless Jehane fell in love with him as well, not as a considered part of the narrative.


I am surprised, however, at how little I want to bludgeon any of the characters to death. It is my usual state of being when reading fantasy -- there is always someone on the "good" team that I want to murder in some way or another. I like how there is no obvious "good" team here, and also how all the characters are likeable (except the baddies, of course). It is perhaps taken a little too far, but I am not complaining at the moment.