What an astonishing book. Part Alice in Wonderland, part Frankenstein, part fractured fairly tale in the Grimm/Carter tradition. I completely understand the polarized reviews--you love it, or you hate it, and both make sense. I really dig it, the kitsch horror, more Teeth than a classic horror franchise. I'll admit a soft spot for the dark academia theme, even before I got an MFA, but this is a lot more than just that. It's about belonging and difference, insider vs outsider, about reality and illusion, about art, but most of all, to me anyway, it's about performance. Performance of femininity, of feminism, of love & sexuality, performance in relationships and performance of relationships. But I think it's also big enough to be about different things to different readers.