There was a lot that I liked: the engaging mystery and the bizarre cases, and of course, the combination of a detective story and supernatural. I liked the charm of the old detective and his relationships with others. However there was also a lot I didn't like. Mostly the writer character that felt so derivative I thought for a moment I was reading King. The most boring kind of character and the most boring kind of the writers that we get in the fiction. We should move on. Also the way the narrative treated mental illness, disabled bodies and queer characters made me uncomfortable. Just no. It's one thing to have horrible characters saying horrible things or simply characters being ignorant, but this was the whole other level. Which is why ultimately I'm like, it was okay, but nothing special. This book had much more potential to be truly great, but failed in creativity.