I felt that it took WAY too long to get to the main action in this book. I spent the majority of the book wondering when the action was going to start. There were funny and witty passages, but I felt like there were way too many references to works of English and classical literature that I've never read. I have a feeling that I would have enjoyed the book more had I read all the works to which the characters allude (as I generally enjoyed the references to the few books I HAD read), but I feel like expecting all her readers to be so well-versed in English and classical literature was a bit presumptuous on Dean's part.
There really wasn't much mention of anything strange or supernatural throughout the majority of the book, save for the Erickson ghost (which I never found explained to satisfaction) and members of the Classics department riding around on horseback on Halloween. When Dean finally got around to the ballad and supernatural stuff at the end of the book, it felt rushed and tacked-on. I also feel like the romantic relationship between Thomas and Janet wasn’t developed enough.
Overall, I feel like my time would have been better spent reading a different novel.
