The Bedlam Stacks immerses the reader in the era of the East India Company, when trade was ruthless and the natural resources of less developed countries were being plundered. Merrick Tremayne has been out of the business because of an injury, but due to his extensive knowledge of plants and an old family connection to a remote Peruvian village he is recruited to travel to Peru for an important mission. He has been tasked with smuggling quinine cuttings out of the country in order to help treat the worsening malaria epidemic in India. When Merrick arrives in the tiny village he encounters unusual superstitions centered around incredibly lifelike statues and the salt line that separates the village from the forest. Equally mysterious is the village priest, Raphael, who appears to know more than he's saying.

The story winds it's way through Merrick's journey, with occasional flashbacks to provide more of his history. A lovely tale of friendship and faith set in a fascinating world with just a hint of the fantastical, The Bedlam Stacks is perfect for fans of magical realism.

A fascinating blend of historical fiction, fantasy, adventure, and steampunk, The Bedlam Stacks takes place primarily in an El Dorado-ish jungle locale with a dark underside. Despite the elements of genuine terror, I found myself wishing all of it was real and that I could journey there myself. A very memorable read.

The book is a slightly less-than-direct prequel to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Though you do not have to read that book before you read this one, I would highly recommend doing so.

Merrick Tremayne is a shadow of his former self. Formerly employed by the East India Company as a smuggler, an accident has left him with a crippled leg and no prospects for the future. But when an expedition is planned to seek out quinine in the mountainous jungles of Peru, Merrick's knowledge and family history make him indispensable for the success of the mission.

However, once he arrives at New Bethlehem, the village founded by his grandfather, Merrick finds that the fairy tales and stories he grew up with may hew closer to the truth than he ever could have guessed. Merrick must discover the secrets of this strange village--and Raphael, the mysterious local priest--in order to continue his mission.

Natasha Pulley has a real talent for incorporating magical and fantastical elements into a thoroughly believable historical setting. Her melding of history and fantasy is organic and subtle, and a fine example of how magical the genre can be. I also enjoy how Pulley steps out of the usual tropes of this type of fiction--exploring the Japanese Civil War in Watchmaker, and taking us into the mountains of Peru (and the shelling of Canton) in The Bedlam Stacks. Pulley explores colonization, international intrigue, and imperialism in this new book, and amidst the magic of her location, she reminds us of the ever-increasing consequences of invasion and interference.

Some aspects of the plot are similar to those in Watchmaker. We are again confronted with a man we are unsure if we can trust, even as Merrick grows closer to him. The mystery of the danger lurking in the forest outside of New Bethlehem, and the questions surrounding Raphael are well written. The book moves slowly in parts, but the climax of the book is actually quite creepy. While the magic here is more fantastical than that on display in Watchmaker, I feel that Pulley did a wonderful job of integrating it into the story.

If you enjoyed Natasha Pulley's first book, you should certainly check out The Bedlam Stacks. Any fan of historical fantasy should look into the series.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Note: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Bedlam Stacks follows Merrick Tremayne - after suffering a traumatic injury, he's retired to his family estate, surrounded by some strange happenings but still feeling as if he is past his usefulness. However, soon an old colleague comes to visit him, charged with bringing Merrick with him on a trip to Peru, in search of a reliable source of quinine. The India Office is in desperate need of a source of the cinchona trees, whose bark yields the quinine they need; Merrick is their last hope. He joins the mission against, it seems, his own better judgement, but follows his friend to Peru. Their destination is New Bethlehem, also known as Bedlam, a small village in uncharted Peru. Once there, Merrick is drawn both to a local priest as well as his own family's history, striking out on an adventure that goes deeper and is more dangerous than anyone anticipated.

I'll be honest, what first drew me to this book was the cover. I know, I know, we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover - but I do anyway. This would not be the first time I've pursued a book without knowing many details as to what it's about, only that the cover was gorgeous and I needed the book itself. I really love the cover of The Bedlam Stacks, and I have to say that I'm glad I read it. There are so many interesting and beautiful threads in the book, subtle hints of mystery and the supernatural, I really do think that there's something for everyone here. The setting was compelling, and as someone who hasn't read too much about this particular period of history, it was interesting as well, although I was a little concerned that not much was mentioned about the imperialism of the period, especially given Merrick's mission with the cinchona trees.

I felt that the pacing at times was off - the book started very slowly to me, and seemed to continue that way until I was about halfway through. However, at this point, I really found myself wanting to know what happened to the characters, and the pace seemed to pick up - and I'm sure my desire to get to the end tied into that as well. I do think that the slow pace with a lack of action really makes the reader focus on the characters and their development, which as someone who loves well-formed characters, dynamic and development I really enjoyed. This book definitely requires patience, which is something other reviewers have mentioned as well, and I think it fits with Pulley's writing style, so honestly I can't complain too much.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and I think I'll be re-reading it eventually to see how I feel about it at a later date. Sometimes when I read, not being in the right mindset for the book at the time can slightly alter my reading experience. Pulley's book has so many elements that I love - LGBT relationships, history, a hint of the supernatural, good character development, interesting dynamics, a bit of mystery. I haven't read anything by this author before, but I think I'll be picking up her other book, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, sometime soon.

I enjoyed this so much I immediately bought and read "The Watchmaker of Filigree Street", which was an equally engaging story. However, Bedlam Stacks was even better written, with spots of laugh out loud humor, and passages more like poetry than prose.

Perhaps because of some of the current political issues in the United States, this passage struck me as significant: "All I could think of was that the border was a clever idea. It might as well have been Hadrian's Wall, but they [the local natives] had taken the idea and distilled it down to all that was actually required of a wall in a perfectly policed world: a line on the ground. I wondered if it was perfectly policed."

In Bedlam Stacks, Natasha Pulley again tells a story of love and friendship that exists between a character who is very much of this rational world, and one who is very much not. The historical and geographical accuracy and references mix with the mystery and make it easy for the reader to suspend disbelief as they are drawn in to the story. Both books left me feeling a little sad for the ending, and that's a good thing.

First Impressions: Author, Cover, and Title
I started this book because I liked the gorgeous symmetrical cover. Plus, the author wrote a book that is currently listed on my TBR and I thought why not? It’s not my usual choice of novel, as I usually read YA fiction, but it was quite a lovely read!

First Chapters
The start was slow in terms of action but there were intriguing bits of information being dropped everywhere, starting with the mysterious exploding tree in the back yard of Merrick’s house. Then, there was the statue in the garden that kept moving; turning its head, literally moving position and walking around. And Clem, his old navy buddy, and Minna, Clem’s wife, show up to talk Merrick into travelling to Peru to retrieve quinine bark.

I was a bit disgruntled with Minna’s almost immediate exclusion from the trip. She discovers she’s pregnant while aboard the ship across the ocean and decides that she’ll stay behind. This is incredibly disappointing as she is immediately an awesome character, defying the gender roles of the time with her mode of speech and actions. And then she’s left behind. She may as well not even exist for all the use she does in the story. The story is also slow to start, though it does have the redeeming factor of a possible relationship between Raphael and Merrick in the end. The promise of this kept me reading at times, when the story was slower. The explanations and information offered at the beginning set up the rest of the story wonderfully and little bits that don’t seem important become important later. Only, if I were just sampling the first couple chapters, I probably would have stopped reading.

Characters
My favorite character by far is Raphael. He is incredibly intriguing to begin with and even as we get to know him, he still keeps a few secrets back. He’s a mystery, how he interacts with Merrick and Clem. Merrick’s honesty with Raphael regarding their purpose for being in Peru, specifically Bedlam, makes him interesting as well. His straightforward attitude towards the whole trip, and his logical way of thinking, lined up with the utterly illogical, at times, story, presents a conflict and Merrick just rolls with it. He, being a scientist, accepts the logical explanation but, upon further observation, changes his mind. He’s not stubborn—he just rolls with it. He is not without agency, but he is a lovely observer who brings a much needed logic to a weird situation.

Style
In the beginning, the style reads like a book that was written at the time when the novel is set, which I suppose is a good thing. It has the plodding explanation style of books I’ve read written in the mid-1800s, as Merrick explains his life and why he’s living with his brother on their family estate. There’s also the attention to detail with regard to the garden and the setup of the house, as well as his little greenhouse. The details are revealed quietly, though some are told rather pointedly, giving them exaggerated importance as regards other parts of the story.

The style in general is quite magical. There’s just something about it that is intriguing, aside from the general premise of the story. The way the story is told, from the point of view of Merrick, the grandson of a man who visited the same village the century before, adds an extra bit to the story, an instant nostalgia and connection that would not be there otherwise. Merrick’s own nostalgia, his yearning for years past, before he was injured, adds to this wistful feeling, as do the inherent magical aspects of Bedlam itself.

I was intrigued by the statues and their supposed clockwork mechanisms. I wondered at their intricacy and method of working and passively accepted the fact of their existence, much like the villagers do. I was equally fascinated by this mysterious border between the village and the zone where the quinine bark can be harvested.

Overall Impressions: Do I recommend?
I really enjoyed this book! It’s not my usual book to read, and is a more subtle fantasy that I usually read. I can’t help but compare it to those other novels, though it’s not in the same league as them, given that I typically read high fantasy with extreme world building. I recommend this book to fans of light steampunk and potential gay romance. I’m holding on to that gay romance thing, even if it was only implied, not explicit.

I rate this as 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5.

"The Bedlam Stacks" is an enchanting mixture of historical fiction and fantasy. It's 1860, and Merrick Tremayne, former employee--read: smuggler-of the East India Company, now an invalid, is sitting around in his family estate, which is falling down around his ears. When his old boss invites him to go on an expedition to Peru to smuggle cinchona trees out of the Andes in order to combat the quinine shortage in India, at first he turns down the invitation. How can a man with only one good leg go trekking through the Andes? He ends up taking on the mission, though, only to discover that the cinchona monopoly isn't his only problem. The village he finds himself in--Bedlam--isn't just built on quaint Inca ruins; it has moving statues, glowing pollen, and something very mysterious going on around it. And what's wrong with Rafael, Merrick's native guide?

The period details are mixed with a modern casualness of style that makes "The Bedlam Stacks" read differently from many historical novels, and from high fantasy. This is more like steampunk, although not quite; it's really a kind of historical urban fantasy, to coin a genre. The magic is unusual: it clearly *is* magic, but it straddles the line between "real" magic and a 19th-century scientific understanding of the world. When English explorers were discovering new-to-Britain countries and peoples all the time, why couldn't they stumble across something that contradicted everything they knew so far about botany and biology? How could they know that what they were encountering was "magic," and not just another foreign culture? This makes the magic of the book--some of which is truly lovely--rather matter-of-fact at times, as hardened adventurer Merrick tends to accept what is going on around him, even when he can't understand it, with a very British calm. Fans of fantasy may or may not enjoy this book: it's certainly not your run-of-the-mill genre fiction, although for literary fiction it's light and fast-paced. What it is is a unique, spirited take on the colonial travel and adventure story, with some imaginative fantasy thrown in for good measure.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a really different book! I had to go away and think about it for a bit before reviewing. I thought as I finished that I didn't really enjoy it that much, but found myself unable to stop thinking about the plot and how nifty some of the elements are (in the sense of "wow - I really wish the world worked in that way!") The writing style is very good, and draws the reader into the story bit by bit, slowly unraveling the mysteries within. The characters are all very well drawn, and even the minor ones are well-developed. The plot is so plausible in so many ways, I found myself Googling to see if some of the more fantastic elements were actually real. While this was not quite what I was expecting (maybe a good thing!) I did end up enjoying this quite a lot, and would recommend this for anyone looking for a read that doesn't fit in to the typical, and that gives you quite a lot to think about.

If you “google” Sir Clements Robert Markham, quinine, Peru - you will be directed to a Wikipedia site which gives much of the basic information contained in Natasha Pulley’s book “The Bedlam Stacks”. Ms. Pulley has added Merrick Tremayne, the narrator of the book, who met “Clem” Markham in the navy and developed a mutual interest in Peru.

The story begins at the Tremayne’s falling down mansion, Heligan Estate in Cornwall. Merrick has sustained a severe injury to his leg, the how, where and why of that is left dangling at this juncture. He has been forced to rely on the not very gracious largesse of his brother who is threatening him with a posting to a parsonage. Enter Clem Markham and his fiancée Minna who have been directed by the “India Office” to mount an expedition to Peru to collect Cinchona plants. They have been directed to include Tremayne as his botanical skills are necessary to take the specimen cuttings and keep them alive during the transport. The plants, once removed from Peru, are meant to be cultivated in other climes upon property owned by The India Office for the production of quinine. Parsonage or high adventure? While claiming that he is unable to negotiate any terrain due to his injury Merrick really has little choice but to join the expedition.

Now the story goes from interesting to what? Curious, mysterious, fascinating, otherworldly, unbelievable, humorous, and a whole lot more. Meet the Quechua Indians who live high up, the disorder of catalepsy, the markayuk creatures of the imagination, and many characters, many good and kind, some nefarious and others defy description.

While Clem Markham was sent on an expedition to Peru to collect Cinchona plants and the Tremayne family did indeed own Heligan Estate, Ms. Pulley uses historic places and personages with much poetic license. The aspects of mysticism required stretching my beliefs and comfort zone – well, why not?! I enjoyed the latent humor and the psychological potential of stretching boundaries.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury for an ARC.

Set in the same world as the lovely, quirky The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, this story follows Merrick Tremayne agent of Britain and the East India Company in his assignment to travel to South America and return with cuttings to start a necessary quinine supply outside of the continent’s monopoly. But the mission becomes more personal as they pass through territory his father and grandfather travelled. It’s a magical historical fantasy with fascinating characters—and at least one familiar friend. I highly recommend it!

I have been anxiously awaiting this book for quite a while, and I’m so happy to report that it did not disappoint. Fans of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street will understand what I mean when I say that Natasha Pulley’s works have a Special Something that is felt so fully while reading but near impossible to capture in words after the fact. (Just…read them yourself, okay. You’ll understand.) But one thing you must know before going into her books is that they are slow in the best of ways; they take their time and so must you. Reading this book in particular feels very much like exploring a forest - walking unhurriedly, pressing your palm up against each tree, taking deep and deliberate breaths. The idea is not to focus on coming out the other end, but to become well acquainted with everything around you and enjoy the journey.

And what a wonderful journey it was! Pulley is brilliant at setting. Having spent some time in Peru, she’s done her research and it shows, but what’s special is all the little elements she brings to life, both those rooted in reality and those imagined. She takes you to the smallest crevices of every space, and describes the most seemingly minute details and movements with a sense of wonder and ease at the very same time. The result is that the most ordinary things appear magical and the most magical things appear so genuine that the line between reality and magic becomes as thin as thread. Spectacular things happen in this book, but they're always so believable. Pulley has created a world so delicately drawn and immersive that, upon finishing, it seems almost odd to go outside and find that hummingbirds don’t leave ghost shapes behind in luminous pollen.

But as was the case in Watchmaker, it’s the characters and the relationships that grow between them that ultimately makes this book really hit me in the Heart Place. There are several compelling characters in this book, including one who will be delightfully familiar to those who’ve read Watchmaker, but it is, perhaps inevitably, Merrick and Raphael who shine the brightest. Each of them is written with care and joy, and while I want to be careful not to say too much, I will say that the connection they share is a thing of beauty. One of my favorite things about the way Pulley does relationships is that she is willing and patient enough to occasionally leave space - between bodies, between words - so that when that space is traversed it is all the more stunning. The dialogue in this book is charming, and Pulley moves effortlessly from wit to sorrow, but equally important are all the things that are communicated wordlessly, in the nudge of an elbow, the drawing down of one’s eyes, or the serving of coffee. I don’t know what else to say except that it is breathtakingly human.

And while this book may be whimsical and cozy, it brings a lot of important issues/subjects to the table. There are so many conversations to be had about a number of those subjects, but most notably race, imperialism, religion, and disability. To try to discuss all of them and how this book engages with them here would be impossible, but there are certainly discussions to be had and I’ll be thinking more about them when I (inevitably) reread.

All in all, a beautiful book that has so much going for it and was utterly enjoyable to experience.

What a stunningly magical book! Merrick (Em) travels to Peru on a mission for the India Office (formerly that of East India Company villainy). He is to bring back the quinine wood that treats malaria - a plant that grows in the heart of Peru and is protected by a local monopoly. When he finally arrives in the village of Bedlam, nothing is as it seems. Glass roads, moving statues, candle ivy, the history of the place, and its current residents - all combine to make Bedlam and the surrounding lands a place out of a fairy tale. And, not the watered down princess-saving fairy tales we tell our children now. The original ones!

I won't tell you more so that I don't ruin the book for you. Suffice it to say, you will not be disappointed when you pick up this book. Do keep a dictionary handy. Ms. Pulley has a firm grasp of the (British) English language. Do keep a computer handy to google things you haven't heard of before, i.e. Schwarzwald-ish, Pyrrhic victory, shibboleths.

This is a swashbuckling, moving, brilliant, funny, touching story that I highly recommend!

The beautiful cover really drew me in but the content is what kept me going back for more! You really feel like you've escaped to that time and place. And such a nice message of friendship!

5 Stars!!

It's no secret that I absolutely adore The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. I listened to the audiobook last year and immediately fell in love with Pulley's writing and the atmosphere she builds throughout the course of the book. When I saw her new book on NetGalley, I jumped at the opportunity to snag a copy. The Bedlam Stacks, a companion novel to Watchmaker, is every bit as wonderful as her first book.

It's so hard to pick a favorite part of these books, but I would have to say it is the writing. Pulley has a beautiful writing style that truly brings the story to life. The word choices are intentional, well researched, and thought out. These are not books to be rushed. They are best when savored. To quote another reviewer, the term "slow burn" was practically created for these novels. Although the plot is fairly simple and straightforward, it is the way that the story unfolds that is so magical. Because of its lyrical quality, these books are divine when read aloud. I highly recommend the audiobook of Watchmaker and I'm sure that the audiobook of The Bedlam Stacks will be no different.

The story starts in London, in a mansion well on its way to dilapidation as a result of the dwindling finances of the Tremayne family line. It doesn't take long however, before the story moves to Peru and the hunt for cinchona trees to produce quinine. Pulley spent quite a bit of time visiting and living in Peru, which really comes through in her descriptions of the breathtaking and mystical land. It is in those tiny details where the magic of worldbuilding really happens. Her descriptions of everything from the mountains to altitude sickness, rivers of glass and snow atop the cliffs, whitewoods and the beauty of the pollen are vivid and masterful. But I'll leave that to you to discover. I felt as if I were living in among the characters, with each chapter revealing something more wondrous than the last.

To me, the majority of Pulley's characters are quiet souls, in a way. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but they seem as if they have soft hearts. I loved Merrick just as much as I loved Thaniel. I loved watching him grow and change throughout the story. In the beginning, he was a broken man with a broken leg who had little to live for, but the journey to the end is really a beautiful one. Clem is a bit of a character - I'll just leave it at that - though I do wish we saw more of Minna. A few cameo appearances by a favorite...and then there is Raphael. At first I really was not sure what part Raphael was going to play in the story, and was a bit wary of him. But the way the stories wove together in the end was so beautiful and bittersweet. It was truly perfect. I feel as if I really knew the characters and was sad to say goodbye to them at the end of the book.

There is so much more I could say about this book, but it should really be experienced firsthand. I generally try to go into books blind, often not even reading the synopsis as I find not have any preconceived notions or expectations makes the experience that much more enjoyable. I highly recommend both of Natasha Pulley's books to anyone who enjoys a well written slow burning fantasy novel that will draw the reader in and stick with them long after reading the end. She is definitely an author to watch and has solidified her place as an auto-buy author for me.

Unable to download copy. I have been looking forward to reading this book and reviewing. Please send .mobi file via Amazon kindle or hardcopy. I've sent my mailing address and issues downloading in the reviewer options.

Unfortunately, this publisher was unable to release book in Kindle format so I was unable to read it; reading on a computer is not an option for me.

The Bedlam Stacks is the second novel by Natasha Pulley that I’ve read and really enjoyed (the first one being The Watchmaker of Filigree Street). The novel is based in the late 1800s and our main protagonist Merrick Tremayne is a former smuggler for the East India Trade company who got injured and had to retire from service. In the beginning of the novel, we find him in his parents’ run down estate (now owned by his older brother), spending most of his time in the greenhouse, the life of excitement and adventure seemingly behind him. There, he is visited by his old Navy friend who talks him into joining him on an expedition to a remote region of Peru to fetch cinchona tree cuttings. The reason for the expedition is that quinine – an essential ingredient in treating of malaria – can only be found in the bark of these trees which grow only in Peru. They embark on an impossible task of smuggling out the cuttings from the region tightly monitored by the quinine monopoly while doing it fast enough for the cuttings to survive a journey to Ceylon, where they will be planted.

This book, just as the first one by Pulley, is a historical fiction that incorporates elements of fantasy, steampunk and myth. She does an excellent job weaving in Inca history and beliefs into the story. I really enjoyed this book. This one in particular reminds me of Jules Verne’s travel and adventure novels. It is filled with wonder, mystery and magic. It also made me really curious about the Inca civilization. In addition, I was pleased see a cameo appearance by Keita, the watchmaker from her previous novel. I do think you can read this book with no issues even if you have not read the previous novel. But it was nice to see that “Easter egg” in the story. 5 out of 5 stars. A truly enjoyable read.

I read an ARC e-copy of this novel provided by NetGalley. The novel officially comes out in the US on August 1, 2017.

Brilliant. Fantastical. Moving. All three words sum up 'The Bedlam Stacks' by the international bestselling author of 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street', Natasha Pulley.
This new book, which I am sure will also become an international bestseller, is an absolute tour de force. A beautiful book about a friendship that spans across the years and generations, which not only exposes the soul of the characters, but also leaves the reader feeling like magic could still exist in the unknown and unexplored corners of this world (and science/medicine).

The author spent three months at a language school in Lima, which was funded by the Society of Authors. Not only did this school open up conversations with native Quechua speakers, but opened up a slew of historical resources and allowed the author a special insight into the religion, customs and traditions of the Incan people. A solid research builds the foundation of this book, upon which Ms. Pulley built her story.

The characters in this book are very mysterious at times, and it isn't always clear to discern their motives. This lends the story a greater feeling of mystery and suspense. The characters are extremely three dimensional, and the dialogue seems so authentic, that I felt like I was looking in through a window.

From the beginning pages in England, where a statue seemed to move when nobody was watching, to the final words in the book, I was utterly hooked and absolutely engrossed in this story. The author weaved historical facts and places with the absolute magical in such a way, that every word seemed utterly credible. The pacing of the story was never too slow or too fast. It never felt like there was dialogue or situations that did not contribute to this masterpiece.

A character from the author's previous book 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street', made a few appearances to my great pleasure. It seems this character was also pivotal in how events turn out in this new book.

Natasha Pulley, in 'The Bedlam Stacks' has shown what an amazing author she truly is. The Bedlam Stacks is a wonderful story of friendship, ancient religion meeting modern times, magic, and the struggles that occur within us. Only absolutely outstanding books receive 5 stars from me, and 'The Bedlam Stacks' counts among one of the best and original stories I have ever read. I am quite certain that this book will reach international bestselling status shortly after being released, as I believe the majority of readers will see what an absolute treasure this book is.

A copy of this digital book was made available to me by the author/publisher and NetGalley. I wish to thank the author at this time for allowing me to read her book ahead of publication, and to thank her for all the hours of entertainment her story has given me.

A deliciously slow novel in all the best ways.

Apparently I adore novels like this, where the tedium of travelling gives way for opportunities to really get to know the characters, their motivations, and the overall nuances of the region where the novel is set. I found this comparable in many ways to The Buried Giant , which was my first memorable foray into the "slow burn" adventure novel.

The magical realism is predictable, due to the obvious foreshadowing throughout, but this didn't cause me to lose interest in the story at all. It was very character driven, and the cautious friendship between Merrick and Raphael was one I adored. I'm a bit sad that there won't really be any other opportunities to have Raphael as a character again in a sequel of sorts. Although I would adore a prequel that follows his history more closely.

The main "quest" of the novel seems to take a back seat once we arrive in Peru, although this didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Figuring out the magic of Bedlam becomes the main quest, even though Merrick really doesn't seem to realize it until much later in the story.

I loved the setting of this, high in the Andes, but despite the decent amount of descriptions of the setting, I still never really got a true feel for what the surroundings looked like in Bedlam and how exactly the forest was set up. Since this was an advance copy, I didn't get the maps that the final edition will have, so I may have understood at least the outline of the surroundings better with those to fall back on. This wasn't exactly a fault with the writing; it was mostly just because I don't have any stock footage in my mind of a setting quite like this.

There were some parts where the dialogue seemed very modern and anachronistic in the late 1800s setting, and there were times when I felt that the "big reveal" was emotionally flat and not revealed very well. These probably would have annoyed me in most other books, but there was something about this story that captivated me and had me hooked, no matter what.

Very much recommended for those who like the genre or Pulley's other works. I had not read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street prior to this, but I will certainly be on the lookout for a copy now.