L (Nineteen Adze)'s Reviews> Palimpsest

I'll need to think about how to rate this one. On one hand, this is an all-time great concept: people stumble into a secret, sexually transmitted city that they can only enter in dreams. On the other hand, the story was often exhausting to read, drowning in its own imagery and elaborate language. And when I weigh my own enjoyment of it, I run into the quiet misery these characters experience while suffering from an addiction to this place, gritting their teeth through unwanted sex as a gateway to explore more of the city. As a commentary on addiction, it's powerful; as a reading experience, it made the middle third of the book feel deeply unpleasant. RTC.