While this wasn’t quite as hooking as the first book, it was an amazing expansion to Alice’s journey. I enjoyed seeing her grow and learn how to be on her own, becoming her own kind of Magician, and the side characters felt stronger than they did in the last story. 

The twists were predictable and at times the writing was more confusing due to the dreamy quality she was going for, to the point where I had to reread pages to figure out what was going on. However, it felt more Alice-like in that way and there was lots of delightful nightmare imagery that could be used because of the change in style. 

I missed Hatcher, though, and the story does lack something without him present. I think of he’d been a stronger presence in the story, it would have felt like a 5 instead of a 4. But definitely recommend reading if you are a fan of Alice’s story.