Song of Carcosa feels like a much longer book than it actually is, and it took me a few tries to get into it. The characters - and there are many of them - feel restrained, like the prose isn't allowing them to fly free within their own story.

There is a cursed play referenced - The King in Yellow, which is at the center of a book of the same name by Robert Chambers. The play is rumored to drive people mad, and a similar malaise is affecting characters in the story, including Pepper, the assistant to aristocratic Alessandra Zorzi, who decides to investigate before Pepper's mind is completely lost.

Alessandra is a wonderful character, and she and the Venetian setting were the highlights of this convoluted book for me. There is a larger battle coming, but I won't be following along.