Okay, one of two things happened. Either this book needed to have been read in one go and the bit where I went away for a week in the middle and only got back to it 14 days later entirely killed my immersive experience or I happened to stop reading right at the point where it went from gripping to frustrating.
I wish I knew.
I enjoyed so much of it and then the last 1/4 of the book just felt like the bad choices to give heft to the sequel conga line.
I did appreciate Zofia, the autistic Jewish character, though. (With one minor "why is the specific piece of Jewish information that the author shares also incorrect - that Jews can't be buried in a Jewish cemetary if they have a tattoo. It's not true. Why does Zofia think that??)