The Ghost Theatre

I wanted more about the mystical bird worshipping people, less about minors being sexually abused.

I loved the prose of the book, the way the narrator sees London and the characters. They were beautiful and real.

But the ending was rushed, it wasn’t really an ending, 3/4 of the book has more action be the rest and it ends with more questions than answers.

Coming from a prose that resembles poetry for most of the book, that captures your attention to end fast, without description in a rush way was a disservice to the story and the characters in it.

A multi layered trip into Elizabethan London , with hints of Gaiman fantasy. It starts with no real rush but the characters will unfold.

Mat Osman's second novel sets the bar for 2023 very high.I enjoyed his debut a great deal, but it was a rock star writing about a rock star. Here he gives his imagination free reign (although if I was being reeeeaaaallly pedantic, I'd note that he's still concerned with entertainers and performances), moving us four hundred years back in time ands vividly evoking an Elizabeth England that is stuffed with cruel predators and misery but also with mystery and wonder. It's not a full-blown alternate history fantasy novel by any stretch, but there's enough delicious occult strangeness here to give it a twist of the weird that most historical novels lack. It's rich, hallucinatory and engrossing, and I loved it.