Mixed feelings on this one. I liked getting a follow-up with Jack and Jill. I was worried it would somehow cheapen "Down Amoung the Sticks and Bones" but it did not, which was a pleasant surprise. I absolutely LOVED the idea of monsters being in balance. Those lines hit HARD. Especially at the end. If this book was only the ending, 5/5. The drowned gods stuff was a but "meh...." for me, I feel like it could have been omitted. 

I'm also glad this book didn't cheapen death the way "Beneath a Sugar Sky" did. The stakes and consequences were well defined, and Jill's death didn't feel cheapened becuase we already knew that resurrection was possible in the Moors. I'm still not a huge fan of Sumi coming back even though she's a fun character.

On that note, I'm still not quite sure why Cora is here since she again has zero connection to anything happening. She's starting to feel like a character that Maguire forgot to include in the first book and decided to put her in anyway without any of the relevant introductions. 

My issues with both Cora and Sumi tie  in with.how I feel about this installment of the series. It seems weird that doors are supposed to be rare yet we have all these characters that have gone to multiple different worlds. On top of that, there was the whole issue about not being suited to the different worlds in tje first book when Eleanor wanted to protect the students by sending them trhough her door. That issue hasn't arisen in these books. I get wanted to have a cast of returning characters for people to get invested in, especially when there's not enough room in these books to properly develop new characters every time, but it doesn't sit right with me the way all of this door business seems so easy as long as you're on a quest. If it were different characters in a different time it would make more sense, but them we'd have to sacrifice precious space for character development at the cost of worldbuilding and plot. I don't think there's a perfect solution here given the lengths of the novels, but sometimes this series feels more like a collection of story ideas than actual stories and I find myself engaging more with the premise than the actual contents of the book.

The writing in this one felt a bit different than the rest in the series. It doesn't cover a very long period of time, so there's a bit more room for the story to breathe instead of shoving down your throat which I appreciated as well.