Ugh, this book. I was so excited to read this novel when I saw it at my local bookshop and, after reading the book, I am regretting that 18CHF that I spent on it. RIP my wallet. I read it almost immediately after buying it, and why not? The cover is stunning, it had a first person narration (which I always like) and I hadn't read some good historical fiction in a decent while. 
 I was let down so very badly by a number of reasons. 
 1) It probably shouldn't have been marketed as YA. Sure, most of the perspectives were from characters in their late teens, but really? Can you imagine a teenager enjoying this? I'm 15 and I sure as hell didn't. The style of writing seemed flouncy and it dragged through those 500 pages like a lame horse at a racecourse. It just didn't have that aspect that YAs often have; that sense of adventure; that liveliness that can only be attained before your life has really begun. I don't know. I just didn't like it. Maybe it was too realistic - there is a reason I read fiction. 
 2) Although the writing was nice and beautifully thought-out and whatever, some parts were excessively detailed and, frankly, just disgusting. I can understand that I guy has jewels sewn into his nethers if you just say that. Please don't describe the shape of them, or compare it to a coin purse. There were some points that just made me cringe. So much of it was just revolting. Sexual abuse, syphilitic wounds, horrific child deaths, one particularly horrific child, men with rather large bowel problems, insanity, objectification of women, mercury poisoning. It is all a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, Susann Cokal writes with a beautiful, intricate manner, but let me appreciate that when she isn't describing... You get my point. 
 3) Plot? Action? Excitement? 
 4) I couldn't identify with the characters at all and there were so many random changes in perspective that I often got lost in the middle of chapters. The characters featured were distanced and I felt like I never got to know enough about them to empathise or identify with the individuals whose stories I was reading. 
 5) As mentioned before, just too long. 
 Overall this book really disappointed me and the only things I truly liked about the book were the cover and the honesty of it - but even that is something I'm still debating on. Maybe Cokal's talents would be better directed at another, perhaps softer, genre where they would be truly appreciated.