All in all, the book was a lot darker than I expected, it wasn't a terrilble read, it was readable enough but nothing much stood out to me, in terms of writing style or characterization. 

The writing style especially felt a little bit flat for me, I found the prose either quite plain or overdone, too much sensational. The narrative was a bit disjointed and slow-moving. At times, it felt like the descriptions dragged on and there was little else under the surface to keep you engaged. 

As the story progressed and more and more dark themes were added, it became quite a lot to digest. I think that this darkenss, paired with the really gothic setting and the supernatural undertones, made the story feel at times a little bit "too much", too melodramatic.

I admit that I'm not really keen on taxidermy so maybe it's mostly on me, but I still think that there were really too many details about the animals
that added little to the story. Especially in the final part of the book, there were way too many lists, I counted at least 5, interminable catalogues of animals and objects that really took me out of the reading experience and just annoyed me. 
 
I can appreciate the ending chosen for the main characters but the story 
and its characters did not particularly stand out to me, it was just okay. I think I came into it with too high expectations and so I was even more disappointed.

This was an interesting gothic style novel about a woman who accompanies part of a museum collection to be protected in a manor house during the second world war. This novel is extremely slow and very little actually happens, but the atmosphere was great and the twist regarding the actual nature of what was going on in the house surprised me.