I struggled with this one in the beginning when it was stubbornly character-focused. Unfortunately, this series is not being written like a traditional fantasy series and I think It suffers in these "contemporary" books where it is trying to be. It's hard to tell an overarching story when the characters have little development and pop out of nowhere. I'm not attached to Cora. Her introduction to the series put me off. If we'd had actual characterization for her before book three, I would have been more on board, but I've spent two other books being annoyed and confused about why this character was here in the first place. If it was to get her to this point, I still think it's dumb.

We don't what happened to her in the trenches. We don't know what happened to her with the Drowned Gods. We have no connection to her. There's no satisfying payoff. Of course, I wanted her to get out of WI. It's a bad place. But I still don't particularly feel attached to her character. This entire arc could have been done with Rachel from the last book since she makes an appearance in this one. Cora continues to be unnecessary. 

The second half of this book is very plot-focused. It did feel a bit rushed. This was the best part of the book, very enjoyable. I do think it would have been more interesting if instead of being blanket evil, they explored the idea that some kids need to forget their time/want to forget their time for various reasons. The staff here have to learn to let those who don't go, instead of being blanket evil. I was hoping for a bit more nuance. 

I thought this was going to be shorter but here we are.