There were chapters during which close friends turned into various animals, then back again into friends. There was a moment when the earth opened up to reveal maggots. There were hackneyed tropes of hell. There was bacchanalian nakedness, badgers, vast owls, and tiny toads. There was waking in the night to discover that there's one more person in the room than you'd originally thought, followed by an interrogation of that figure to determine whereabouts its edges are, where it might begin, or how you might follow it outside.