3.5

I have quite a few thoughts. I'll start with the pictures. It was fun in the first book, but definitely around the third one, it started to feel like it was weighing the books down. Around page 400, there was this whole ordeal with Frankie that just seems shoved in there to show off some cool pictures. While it did move the plot forward (much a credit to Riggs's talent as a writer) the scenes themselves felt very out of tone and juvenile. I plainly did not enjoy them. Most scenes heavily packed with pictures felt forced in some way like they were written to include them whereas in the first few books they felt like the pictures inspired the work.

My second critique of the pictures is they are 100% being used to mark up the prices of these books. They're printed on full-colour pages and everything from the page number to the scene divisors is coloured to match them. I'm very annoyed with YA books being more like collector's items than books because then they are priced ridiculously high. This one wasn't insane (30cad plus taxes) but less-mainstream authors' books sell for around 23.

That being said, this was super fun to read. I didn't have a lot of reading time but whoever I picked it up I flew through it. This book seems very dense when you hold it (I've seen longer hardbacks printed in thinner paper weighing less) and can feel very intimidating but the writing flows so well I made it through 100 pages and barely even noticed. The pacing was good, but it starts to feel looong around the 350-page mark.

The expansion of the world feels natural and I'm very glad it's not rehashing the same things we saw in the first arc of the series. I have a feeling it will get better and I'm excited to read the next one.

I hope this is not going the prophecy route...