Not a good start to my 2014 reading. I'm a huge fan of Erin Bow. With talent and ease she crafted one of my favorite stories of all time, Plain Kate. When it was announced she had released another novel, of course I couldn't pass it up when I saw it available on Netgalley. It was with eager anticipation I opened the ebook file and began to read. Near the beginning I was hopeful. As the story progressed sadly the disappointment factor increased with each passing page. The story had potential. The world building touted as unique, imaginative and different drew me to the book, but it did not deliver the type of story I was hoping for. The book felt like it takes place in the distant past with a Native American fantasy world setting. Its told in a third person narrative through the eyes of the main character Otter, a binder. Pacing is slow, slow, slow. Right from the beginning I didn't understanding the setting, I couldn't picture the world in my head and I had no idea what to make of it all. The shadow creatures just cropped up out of nowhere and totally caught me off guard. The characters lived in a tribe in a place (well I think its a place) called "The Pinch". In the tribe their were Binders, Rangers and Story Tellers. Children were asked to chose what trade they would learn when they reached age sixteen. Since I was so baffled by it all, I confided with a few fellow bloggers, to find out what the heck my problem was. They all explained it was a metaphorical read. Therein lies the problem. I am not a cerebral or metaphorical reader. I like my stories, black and white, concrete with little areas of gray. The vast majority of this story is gray! I guess I just wasn't the right reader for this book. Erin Bow's writing as always was brilliantly scripted with eloquent details and description. This I enjoyed. However, with this book, unlike Plain Kate, she did tend to be repetitive at times, especially with particular words and phrases. Maybe this was to give it a more tribal feel? I don't know. This wasn't working for me at all. I kept reading over and over "Mad Spider bound the knots too tight." - or something to that affect. This began to grate on my nerves. Another piece of the plot which wasn't working for me was all the non-stop story telling. Was it just me or did the phrase "tell me a story..." seem overused? I was sick to death of stories by the end of this one. Oh, and speaking of death, far too many characters died in this book for no particular reason what so ever. The strange thing for me, though was it didn't affect me at all. In Erin Bow's Plain Kate, she had me in tears, but in this one, I felt absolutely no emotion what-so-ever. As for the characters, Otter, Kestrel and Cricket, I appreciated their friendships and loyalties to each other. They totally had each other's backs and would do anything for each other - even die - which should be pretty powerful. It wasn't enough to compel me to care. I never felt attached to them. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe because I didn't really get a chance to know them very well. In addition, the villains of the story were not concrete, the main evil being a white hand. Yes, that's right, you heard me a white hand! I needed more background information. I craved for more understanding and explanation for this one to work for me. I was left with far too many questions about the society, I just wasn't able to fill in the details without the author's help. She didn't provide me what I needed to grasp the world she was creating. I felt let down. The ending was painful in a long drawn out way. At this point, I just really wanted the story to end and it felt like it just kept going on and on. Sadly, the happiest part of this book for me was when I read the last page. This story was just not for me. That doesn't mean it wasn't a good story though. Many people enjoyed it. I would recommend this to readers looking for something completely different. People who can fill in details and form their own opinions with minimum backstory will appreciate this tale more than me. If you want native american tribal customs mixed with magic, a book with lots of mythology and stories, slow pacing and a cerebral, metaphorical read - this book would be a great fit.