I began this novel with high hopes enjoying the quirky humour and the soul searching of our narrator, Cyrus.

However, the more I read, the more I became bogged down with so much stuff the writer is trying to do. Amongst the philosophical exposition, extracts from our protagonist's book and narratives of his dreams featuring conversations between family members and famous people, the plot starts to get a bit lost amongst the brambles.

I ended up finding the enjoyment of the opening chapters waned as the polyphonic voices felt monotonal and each character seeks the same thing, discovering it in very similar ways. I didn't find enough diversity or hook to the plot arcs of any of the characters.

The writer does express nuance well taking us on a journey away from the black and white views of the narrator at the beginning to an increasingly accurate greyness perspective of humanity which was intelligent and thought provoking. However, the blend of this with a fictional novel was just too clunky and his creativity became a device that did not gel into enjoyable storytelling.

This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.