I want to say it was too many characters
How was the character development?
I tried to like this and be open to J.K. Rowling writing something other than Harry Potter, but this story was so slow, depressing and heavy, I honestly could not finish it.  I want to say it was too many characters, but I was able to read Game of Thrones with it's huge cast with no problems. I just can't say for sure what the problem was other than it was almost as if she set out to prove she could write adult fiction but tried too hard. 