I liked a T. Kingfisher book! Crucially, it does not take place in a setting where the internet exists, and I think this what is required to get me to like a T. Kingfisher book. This is a nice bit of gothic horror, helped heartily along by Poe's structuring but different enough from the story that inspired it that the retelling seems worthwhile. It's a short book that burns along at a logical pace, and the worldbuilding was quite enjoyable. I haven't recently liked 19th Century Fantasy England, but in this case I did, because the protagonist was an outsider and yet a chameleon, and it made for interesting narration.

I like gothic shit, I like mushroom shit. Kingfisher's usual writing style was tempered in its annoyance to me by the setting, and the flippancy of the character grappled with serious life shit and felt justified by their life circumstances. It was nice to see a nonbinary protag in a historical setting as well. Because the protagonist is from a fictional nation, they had the opportunity to burn both the Brits and the American through the lens of comedic stereotypes constantly, and while this would surely be a miss for others, it landed for me. It's amazing what the introduction of countryman from a fictional country was able to do for this book, I think. In particular, there was a bit of linguistic worldbuilding early in the book that partially explained Alex's gender presentation, but it also wound up being relevant to the plot at the end of the book, and I thought that was a bit of artistry that really landed! Positive craft notes! I've never been happier to like a book.