Hello. First time reviewer here. Not sure where to begin, with anti-jonas' whale, with the play between sorceress shadow hermit and child, with the biochemistry lecture at the very end and which is still fresh in my mind. What sticks is the effect this book has on the reader, and the unbelievable, almost mesmerizing, grip it holds on you despite how difficult, and albeit boring at times, passages, you still can’t get your head out of it, even when you stop reading for a break, quite a fit for this season I’d say, the book’s imagery and , forgive me for the illiterate expression, vibe, eats you whole, like the fish swallowing jonah, the prince’s shadow comes to this irredeemable town and brings the whale with him, dismissing any chance of repentance. The writing, and the story, are equally depressive, for the sentences loop and wrap around each other (this, if they ever end, a full stop is a rare finding), but it is at last revealed that the plot itself doesn’t fall far from the tree, even if the catharsis reveals profound changes within the characters inner worlds, they remain stuck where they began, dead, alive, or dead alive, and , just like Valuska’s head butt with reality, maybe the only way to resist how indifferent the universe is towards us, is to ride the chaos with a maximalist goal. But even the mastermind Mrs Eszter, the winner, is left unhappy and anxious, and after seeing the light, at loss.