I'm having a hard time deciding what rating this book should have. There were times when I thought I couldn't give it more than tree stars at best, and there were times when I wanted to give it six. At last, I settled for four because although I enjoyed it immensely, there were some things I seriously did not like.

First (and most prominent) of them being Holly. It's not about her personality, even though I found her annoying most of the time (but tbh this is due to the fact that the story is narrated by Lucy and she is not the most reliable narrator out there, as the later part of the book showed), but because of her role in the story. She is not there to have more diverse cast (and I mean it in "more characters, more fun" way), her sole purpose there was to give Lucy a rival. Someone to compare herself with, to be jealous of, to channel her frustration with Lockwood through. And with that, Lucy becomes the most irritatig character of them all and Holly is reduced to flat, 2D cliché. I hope this changes in future books and Holly is treated better by the author.

That being said, the only other complain I have is a change of pace. This time it took quite a while before the main plot was revealed and I was getting a bit impatient. The main event was worth it, though, thank you Mr. Stroud, now I can't go to a department store without being scared for life (and that crawling thing will give me nightmares for days, I'm sure of it).

What I did love about the book was George. He is destined to be only a sidekick, but let's be honest, he was the star of the show (I love him most since the book 1 so I might not be entirely impartial, but I stand by my words here!). He is intelligent, witty, sarcastic, he can jab at Lucy when she needs it (but without any malice!), he is so refreshingly self-assured and comfortable in his own skin while having flaws as well (which makes him more likeable character than Mr. perfect and charming Lockwood imho). I enjoyed every scene he was in and I know I will definitely reread the book just because of him.

Well, not only because of him as there was another character I'd loved since previous books and who was given more screen time this time. Quill Kipps. I love the way his character develops. Or rather the way we see him develops. Kipps from book 1 is a different creature than the one from book 3 and I think it's not because he personaly changed that much. It's the way Lucy and others see him that changed. You know the feeling while reading a book when something happens, something that changes the way you see a character and their motivation and you have to go back and reread the book because now you read their behaviour completely differently. That's what happend to me at the end of book 2 and this book confirmed my hunch. I hope in future books there will be even more of Kipps and something tells me it will <3 (that something being a mild spoiler I found when researching how old he actully is, damn you wiki).