I am sorry to report that I had to dnf this book at 27%. Nothing horribly wrong with it, but I was just not having a good time, I found myself struggling to want to pick it back up and this was severely hindering my ability to actually enjoy any of it.

Some elements I believe to be factors in my overall view of this book and my decision to put it down:
- Dare I say it... I wanted more cannibalism? I feel like I went into this thinking it would be front and center but it was actually avoided being talked about (with good reason realistically, but I really had hoped for more earlier on). I never really got too much of the horror element because everything was so vague in the first quarter of the story.
- Having the story set in the late 1800s did not help me at all. I don't do well with historical piece, apparently.
- While I thought that the story sounded interesting from the description, in actuality it had a very slow pace and less-than-interesting characters.
- I do feel like this book could have worked well had it moved a little faster OR if the beginning of the book jumped right into the second return expedition because that is what I was interested in reading about anyway. There was too much foundation building of the who and why but not enough of the action.
- I did appreciate the subtle queer theme, I just wish I could stick around long enough to see it become anything more than just wistful daydreams/memories.