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A darker, more modern sequel to a classic fairytale, but with drum n' bass, set in the late 90s in London. I'm less familiar with London, but loved all the lovely descriptions of its personality and architecture. It has its own personality. All the characters are fleshed out, flawed, and feel like they have their own stories which would easily fill a few other novels.

A cat and a little bookstore - what's not to like? The story evoked a lot of visual imagery for me. It was easy to imagine, for example, a stop motion version of the story playing out while reading it. The main character is awkward indecisive, but earnest and well-meaning. He may come across as judgemental because of his love of specific types of books and how they should be treated, but he doesn't do so to be spiteful and superior - it's just what he believes. A pleasant, light read with some deeper thoughts about today's world and literature.

I don't feel I can give this book a fair review, because I got this as a gift as the third book in the series without having read any of the previous ones. That said, it was enjoyable enough. A nice weekend read. I would like to read the other books in the series. It was interesting to see how it falls into the Stephen King bigger world.

It was refreshing to have a female character in her 60s as the protagonist, and although it was tightly tied to Maine, much of the book takes place off world, which was also entertaining. The illustrations were nice, in a retro style, which brought to mind books from my childhood, albeit with rather more grim scenes than in your average kids' book.

Loved the characters. Would like to see more of them. I'm am sure I can't write a review to do it justice, but it was fascinating to me. The juxtaposition of old mainstream tech from 2006-7 with more futuristic devices, the then-time American political situation compared to today's current flavor of madness, and my own memories of playing the augmented reality real-world location-based game Ingress compared to the book's interesting locative art. I enjoyed the dry sense of humor. There was no "Womp womp" trumpet accompanying the carefully placed sentences. I look forward to diving into the third book in the series.