In the way the humans, when they weren't being all that influenced by the supernatural bits, weren't any better to each other than when they were. Not in the supernatural bits that part didn't bother me. There is no functional relationship in this book, no pair of people whose bond is strong and good and worthy, no group a person could trust or even be willing to join for a dinner expedition.
I think the thing that stood out for me as I kept reading was that The Half-Made World does not seem to be a book that believes in people in units of greater than one. The Gun and the Line are the two main opposing forces in this world, but there are others, and they are no nicer. The Gun and the Line: they are not much given to explanation.
unless it isn't, unless it's something else completely, post-apocalyptic science fiction with oddly explained or unexplained tech not fully understood by those who possess it. This is a secondary-world fantasy with the tech levels of late 19th century America, rather than a 19th century America gone wrong. The Old World countries are echoes you can see if you squint at them sideways, but they have their own names, their own hinted histories. The Half-Made World is not an alternate Old West per se: it's inspired by the Old West rather than trying to recreate it, and the landscape is its own rather than ours.
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