I'm rapidly becoming a fan of Carroll's writing. The Marriage of Sticks begins like the two other novels of his that I've read, with a beautifully evoked love story involving engaging characters. After 100 pages or so, strange elements enter, and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred. This novel in particular is very similar in structure to Sleeping in Flame; the two stories share several important plot elements, and though I liked the twist end of The Marriage of Sticks somewhat better, I think that the mythology of Sleeping in Flame hangs together more coherently. Now I have to decide whether to dive into another Carroll novel or to save them for later.