Book Review: Den of Shadows by Christopher Byford

I was so intrigued by the concept as described in the blurb. The description was short and pithy, full of mystery and the promise of hidden depths… Add in the delightful cover art and great title and the comparisons to The Night Circus and Caraval, and I was sure I would fall right in to this one.

Not so much.

It started slow, but a lot of books do. (Although not either of the comparators I mentioned, incidentally.) I’m willing to give a book 50 pages (unless I hear from a trusted source that I need to give it more – and even then, I’m not willing to give it much more); as long as it gives me something to catch my attention, I’ll keep going. This one just couldn’t get me there…

I understand the importance of world building, but this one felt like all world building and very little action/story – and the world was a fairly dystopian, drab one, so there wasn’t even any magic in that for me.The blurb made the three major characters sound so intriguing – the brief mentions of them were like a strip-tease: a dip of shoulder with their unusual names, a flash of leg with their tantalizing roles on the train… But after 20% of the book I still felt like that was all I knew about them. Their parts of the story would start to whisper at mysterious pasts and unknown futures, then they’d fall back into prosaic roles and responsibilities running the train/business, and a minute later I’d find myself back in world-building description – shaking my head and wondering where the action/mystery/secrets went…

My review copy was provided by NetGalley.