maharetr

Oh, my God the love. Words cannot fully convey the amount of glee and joy I had while reading this. Richard Mayhew helps an injured woman and gets sucked into her world. I was charmed by the time I finished the prologue, and it just got better from there:

"He was a fresh-faced, boyish young man, with dark, slightly curly hair and large hazel eyes; he had a rumpled, just woken-up look to him, which made him more attractive to the opposite sex that he would ever understand or believe." Hi, Neil Gaiman, hi!

I was in love with the Lady Door (who I kept seeing as the bob-haired young woman with too-long sleeves, Helena, from MirrorMask), totally lusted after Hunter, and was simultaneously creeped out and delighted by Croup and Vandemar:

"Are you bribing me?" Varney asked.

[Mr Vandemar is casually pulling apart a chain, one link at a time. Chink, chink...]

"No," said Mr Vandemar. "We're intimidating you. And if you don't do what Mr Croup says..." Chink "...we're hurting you..." Chink "...very badly, before we're..." Chink "...killing you."

"Ah," said Varney. "Then I'm working for you, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are," said Mr Croup. "I'm afraid we don't have any redeeming features."

"That doesn't bother me," said Varney.

"Good," said Mr Croup. "Welcome aboard."

There were several clever moments, where you think "Oh! Plot-twist!" and then you realise you've just had your assumptions gently exploited. The plot wasn't totally new territory for me, but (because of that?) this is going high up on my list of comfort reading.