The atmosphere was incredibly depressing and the ending was more sideways than traditionally happy, but these are good and fitting things for this particular book. I had fun separating the bits of folklore and myth I recognized from those I didn't and I think I might have accidentally picked up a little more tourist etiquette, but the thing I like best is the modern application of the old Underworld theme--the darker Other Side where humans are removed from time and strange beings and creatures make their homes. What's happened to those places as human cultures have changed? Do the inhabitants fade into the soil? If you go there, will you be ever be able to leave?

Questions to think about.