October 2017: I finally read through the whole book this time, and enjoyed it. It took me a looong time though; the prose is so dense and the pace of the story is molasses-slow. I would put this down to read other things and come back to it. I love the idea of the book-- the idea, the setting, the bizarre characters-- but I wasn't always in the mood for something so slow, nor was I captivated by every single plot thread/character. I always devoured Steerpike's scenes though!

October 2014 DNF ~55%: I really wanted to like this book but it just wasn't working for me. The prose is beautiful but dense and plodding and heavy. The story moves along at such a slow pace, and while there are times where I enjoy books like this, I really had difficulty staying attentive with this one. ( )

How do you review a book that can't be compared to anything else? One of my favorite books of all time. Titus Groan and especially Gormenghast are outstanding. Titus Alone is a strange sequel that probably was influenced somewhat by Peake's progressing disease. Still worth reading.

Bizarre, fantastical, Gothic, symbolic, surrealistic, beautiful. Peake's language is superb. Some of the most gorgeous prose to read. ( )

Master of the Gothic fantasy and beyond. ( )

I finally finished it by listening to it at work on my MP3 player. It is very dense. I like the characters; I like the creation of place; I like that it doesn't follow obvious story lines and that characters don't live or die based on how sympathetic they are.

The first 2 books are definitely better than the last third of the trilogy, but the last, Titus Alone, gives some place to the country of Gormenghast castle that is absent in Titus Groan and Gormenghast.

I have only recommended this to one friend I think will enjoy the language and meandering plat development as much as I did. This is NOT light reading. ( )

A very laborious volume that takes some time to get into - but it is worth it. There were sections that were very interesting, sections where I laughed out loud, and sections where I felt the pathos strongly. I empathized with several of the characters. It is unfortunate that Titus Alone is basically a skeleton, unfinished - and that Peake was unable to complete the series with one or two more volumes. ( )