Wow, this book just blew all of my expectations out of the water. I read and enjoyed the first book, Dark Rise, well enough. I thought it was an interesting premise with pretty good world building and some subversions of fantasy tropes, with writing that was a little campydramatic for my tastes at times but mostly good. I was looking forward to reading the second book, but after what I thought was a fairly anticlimactic and muddled ending of the first one my hopes weren't super high. I was expecting a run-of-the-mill follow up and what I got was probably one of the best sequels I've read in a long, long time. 

The character development, especially for the leads, is excellent. Will and James in particular each have these full arcs that really help them develop into well-rounded and complicated characters. Violet, Cyprian, and Elizabeth each have their moments to shine as well, although we spend significantly less time with Violet than in the first one which was a bit sad for me. Even the new character (no spoilers) was a welcome addition, and added another layer of tension and complexity to the relationships in the book. The pacing was solid throughout, I found myself having to take breaks from reading so I wouldn't finish it too quickly. My biggest gripe from the first book- the ending- was completely 180'd in this one. The ending was incredible, I couldn't put the book down, and I was audibly gasping at some of the scenes. (That cliffhanger though...!)  The writing quality has improved a bit too, I think, although I will say that the series could probably use for another round or two of revisions, as there is some repetitive language and descriptive scenes that drag on a little long. 

The biggest weakness of this book for me was the fact that the crew got split up pretty early on in the story, which caused a whole bunch of POV-skipping and it got a bit convoluted. Also the timeline of events of the book just straight up doesn't make sense if you think about it for more than 10 seconds. But I digress, I am willing to look past this in favor of everything else. My only other note would be that the relationships in this book, like the first one, are definitely a slow burn and there is a lot, and I mean A LOT of URST for most of it, between multiple characters, for the entire thing. I found myself forgetting that it's technically a YA book often. I'm not really sure if they're going to be able to keep that rating for the next book if things keep escalating the way they did in the second... Nevertheless, I am so excited for the third installment! If you liked the first book at all but found it a little meandering at times, I implore you to give this one a go. It notably improved over the first. 

i very rarely read fantasy books, but i’m so glad i read this series, it was incredible. i love morally grey characters and complicated hero/villain dynamics. 
all i gotta say is, will deserves the world, cyprian needs to be throttled and james should get a fckin break after carrying this series on his back. thank you

So good, that end should be illegal, but so good. I’ve never read a book with the central theme of this book: trying not to become the evil curse you were born to. And it’s done so excellently. The betrayal and the heartache of it all. They’re all so young too that everyone’s choice make sense, but still hurt. 

Fantasy, Found Family

“She knew by now words didn’t help, and that when things were broken they never really got mended. You just went on. You just went on as best as you knew how.”