Considering the ending it needed to nail this was going to have to really nail, for it to get more than three stars from me. It works and maintains the ethos of the characters and world, but also definitely felt overly plotty and as though it were wrapping things up in an inorganic, insert plot beat kind-of-way sometimes.

I think most other books, because they have a lot more space, end up going in surprising and subversive directions, and without that it does feel like a predictable set of circumstances unfolding, including the ending. It also leans more into the world building aspects I’m less interested in, and the epilogue is more playful than I’d have liked. I guess I felt like the stakes were played out and I wanted that to surprise me with a change up, as it sometimes does in this series, but instead I would consider this book to be very “safe”.