I tried to like this and be open to J.K. Rowling writing something other than Harry Potter, but this story was so slow, depressing and heavy, I honestly could not finish it.  I want to say it was too many characters, but I was able to read Game of Thrones with it's huge cast with no problems. I just can't say for sure what the problem was other than it was almost as if she set out to prove she could write adult fiction but tried too hard. 

Question: How was the character development?
Answer: I want to say it was too many characters