This book feels like it could have been a whole lot shorter. While I really liked the lore that was slowly making its way into the story, and the stories of the numina and where that seemed to be headed, it was comparatively such a small part of the book. Instead, there's a lot of repetitive running away as they're almost caught time and time again, with characters also having really repetitive thoughts while all this was going on. Some intrigue was added to the relationship when Rone was forced to make a tough choice, but it came far too late. Most of the story overall felt quite stagnant, with the same sorts of scenes happening over and over again as the two main characters tiptoed very slowly closer to a solution, which always seemed just out of reach. It was almost tiring to read at points, because every time a little bit of progress was made, they'd be found and have to run, starting almost all over again every time. It honestly got quite frustrating.

Even then, I do see a strong basis for a series here, so I'll probably read the next book to see if the issues I had with this particular installment are less prevalent later. There's enough here I'm still interested in, so I'm still curious to see where the story goes!