More of a 3.5 star review than anything.

I think it's a real bummer that I don't like this book more than I should. I loved Bracken's teen series Passenger and its sequel, and I look forward to reading her other series The Darkest Minds.

Her first junior fiction book, however, is somewhere between a meh and good.

I want to say that I liked this book more than I hated it. I like Prosper, I like how good-natured and strong-willed he is, holding his own against Alastor's temptations. He's rational and amiable, without being too much of a goody two shoes.

I also really like Alastor, though that may stem from my love of foxes. Naturally, he's a complete brat, being both petulant and sneaky, but also surprisingly vulnerable, though he would be quick to deny it. And it will be interesting to see how this character will grow in the next book.

I think what it really boils down to is that I like the story, I just didn't like the mechanics of the story.

For one, the pacing tends to run too slow. It isn't until halfway through the book that Prosper starts going undercover at a new school, which seems a little late at this point. There are chapters where it feels like the tension is waning and I'm just anticipating for something to happen. We get there at some point, but it feels like its own journey.

This book has some twists, one that I did see coming and one that I didn't. It all depended on the hints the author gave or, in some cases, didn't give. You can probably guess which approach is more effective.

But what really irked me was the ending. After all this time and going through all these trials, nothing is resolved, at least, not the main conflict of this story. The climax happens and then the book just ends, obviously leading into the next book. I really hate it when books do this. The whole point of an ending is to gain some kind of resolution, not tack on more problems for the characters to solve. I mean, you can add problems at the end to hype up the next book, but resolve at least some problem in the first story. Falling action is needed to get some closure on the main conflict, even if it's going to be continued. I understand why Bracken chose to end this story this way and, while it may be effective for some, it just awakens a little pet peeve of mine.

To be fair, I didn't hate this book. It's just that the negative thoughts are louder than the positive ones sometimes, but that doesn't really take away the enjoyment I got from the good parts of the story. I will happily read the next book when it comes out.