This was hard to rate so low, but after the triumph that is Ninth House, it would’ve been hard to follow regardless — I just had hope that Miss Bardugo could’ve done it! This book read so much more YA-y than the first and really felt gimmicky: irrelevant extended metaphors, awkwardly scripted dialogue (“Let’s give them hell” felt too much like a Freeform TV show), and caricatures of characters

(I’m looking at you Tripp)

. I loved the use of Yale and its architecture, but the plot repeated itself simply too many times over. Unsatisfying, I fear.