I was super impressed with Thirteenth Tale (her first book), and while I don't think this one is as good, I do think it comes as a close 2nd. Very close. I think that the more that I talked about it with the book club, the more I realized there were some pretty intricate things that made the book even more well written. The beginning was hard to follow, but the farther I went in, the more I was intrigued and had to figure out who the little girl was. I felt deeply for all the characters, and I hated those who were supposed to be hated. I still think of them as scum and I'm glad they don't really exist.