I felt held at arm's length the whole time. Because they all mostly talk the same way, it felt like I was listening to a group of people sharing a private joke: it's fascinating and I want to know more, but they won't let me in. Their world is so tiny, and I get that this insular, almost claustrophobic feel is kind of the point, but what I didn't so much enjoy was being stuck with this cast of characters, none of whom I ever really came to like or feel close to. The whole thing consists of characters talking in this beautiful rhythm to each other. On the other hand, I'm not sure how well this all works within the broader context of the book. The way Campbell draws the woods as the novel's dynamic nucleus and builds the atmosphere is wonderful, and the hints of hallucinatory weirdness are deft and restrained. This kept me on edge the whole way through, not necessarily because of the narrative's momentum, but because the prose has this delicate intricacy to it that punishes even the slightest lapse of attention. The prose is a kind of vernacular poetry unto itself Campbell plays with sentence structure and character interaction in some really clever and illusive ways. On a technical level it's something close to a masterpiece, the horror's slow ooze engulfing the reader with glacial deliberation.
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