I've finished Gormenghast! or at least the first couple novels, and the last one--Titus Alone-- has no interest for me whatsoever. What I've loved about these books is Gormenghast, the immense crumbling impossible structure and all its absurd ritual. I would have read another five novels about that weird, weird place; I don't want even one about Titus , who I've never found very interesting , going off to have his coming of age journey .

(A brief digression: one year in junior high our English class spent the *entire year* reading books about What It Means to Be A Man. Not to become an adult, not just coming of age: The Meaning of Manhood. We read like eight books on the topic and they were almost all mid-century takes, heavy on the "kill what you love" and women and animals dying to symbolically free the newly- arrived Capital M Man. I've done my time with that one, so any interest I might have had in the world outside Gormenghast was whittled away fast with every narrative reminder that Other People Dying Had Ended His Boyhood etc etc . I don't begrudge people those stories if they want 'em but I've had 'em, I've done my time and I'm Done.) 

...man I really REALLY did not find Titus interesting, except for the Marbles Scene. But that's a ramble for another time.

Because overall I LOVED these two books; I fell in love with the ridculously Gothic expanse of Gormenghast at once , and the characters won me over without me really noticing it. In the first book they all felt like part of the place, which was excellent; in the second it felt like they were more having their human-ness brought out in contrast to the surroundings, which was less fun in some ways , but I really loved everyone by that point so hanging out with them was still excellent. It says something about both the nature of the place and the characters that I was chill hangin' out and just letting things unfold at their own pace for a character like Steerpike; it was just impossible to feel like anything was urgent. 10/10 loved it all.

I wish I could spend more time with those characters and that world! I would have spent chapters reading about any tiny detail of the Rituals or the building or even the Bright Carvers (and in fact I'm profoundly disappointed we didn't learn more about "the Thing" from the POV of anyone but Titus. Ugh, Titus.) That being said, it's very funny to me that Peake himself doesn't seem to have any interest in the Tension of his plot; I lost track of how often he established a dramatic change of events that demanded action Right Now and then just skipped several chapters ahead to when it had Already Happened. Iconic. Brilliant. I don't need to know, Merv, you're so right. Tell me more about the hallway.  TELL ME MORE, I NEED TO KNOW.  

Highly recommended for: anyone who wants to read about a Weird Old Building and also some Weird People of various ages :D