This was the most unnecessary, unimaginative, and underwhelming sequel I have ever read.

The first book wraps up nicely with a little found family. Justice was served, debts repaid, and even though trauma isn't simply cured with a magic spell, Vanja is beginning to love, trust, and grow. It is implied that her future may be whimsical and mischievous, but Vanja is well on her way to healthy self-discovery.

Book two immediately breaks up the found family, and has Vanja put all of her self-worth into her biological family's approval. And all 12 of her siblings are boring as drywall, falling into that tired trope of being characterized as "A name, a hair color, and a gender. The end." Vanja unlearns all of the trust she had for Emeric, and assumes the worst of him at every turn. And gone is intelligent, romantic Emeric; he's a YA trope now, only existing to be sexualized or to tell Vanja that she's always right, even when she gets herself into trouble. Gone is critical thinking, our heroes playing right to the villain's hand the whole way through. Vanja falls back into her old thieving habits, rationalizing still that she's doing it for a good reason, even though she spent THE ENTIRE FIRST BOOK cursed for doing exactly that! Gone is the political intrigue, replaced with financial crimes... woo... so exciting. There's an off-in-the-margins cult that might have been intriguing, but it's never given as much scrutiny as it deserves. And what could have been an intriguing antagonist that personified how trauma or shame, and the lies we tell ourselves, can take on a nightmarish life of its own when we reinforce our fears with negative self-talk, is WASTED and never properly explored!!! Instead, we get a watered down Darth Vader. "Vanja, I am your Mother." Booo! Boo hiss boo! We could have had Dopple-Vanja! And instead we got Darth Mommy-Marthe's ghost?! Boooooo!!!

The one... very tiny... almost microscopic thing that this book did right, was take the sensationalism out of YA Romantasy, and just delivered a nice, healthy, openly-communicated love story. The heroes took their time discovering sex, having discussions about contraception or pleasure or long-term relationship goals... But as much as it was healthy, and nice, and a smart move for a YA book... It was stiiiill... boring? Many times I felt like I had opened up a Health Class workbook, and was reading a hypothetical scenario that I was then meant to discuss with the class. O_o It was a weird vibe. Like, if you wanted to have The Talk with your teen, but didn't want to embarrass them, so you gave them this book to read, with the instructions, "Come talk to me after if you have questions."

A boring plot. Wasted characters. A weird vibe. And a complete gutting of the first book. If I could give Painted Devils fewer than 1 star, I would.

In the Acknowledgements, the author admits to being creatively burnt out when attempting to write this book, and IT SHOWS!

The fact that this is a story about vampires does not matter. They can go out in the sunlight, they can drink synthetic blood, they get hungry but don't have to fight back bloodlust, they are beautiful and charismatic but don't use their enthralling abilities for political gain (the most interesting thing vampire glamour is used for is a cautionary metaphor about consent at a party). Basically, there is no dark fantasy element to this fantasy academia! It's just... teenagers being teengers.

The teens are all insufferable. They are self-centered, petty, vapid, and nobody knows how to read below surface levels cues - sometimes they can't even read the surface! And all the tropes are here: The protagonist who's never felt like she fit in, the love interest who's a rebel-without-a-cause, the obligatory Mean Girls, the obligatory non-magical best friends who appear as set dressing and then play no further part in her magical-girl story, the hot vampire boyfriend, the mom who just doesn't understand her, the dorky good mentor, AND the charismatic evil mentor, the teacher who seemed rigid but is actually sympathetic, AAAAAND the evil headmaster who seemed goofy and relatable but was hiding his elitist schmuckery behind a smile. It hurts. It all hurts. Everything was predictable, so the fact that Kat and Taylor took four-freaking-hundred pages to piece together the "mystery" hurrrrts.

The book itself had basic errors: Words out of order, words mistakenly repeated, the wrong character named in dialogue. All basic errors that a proof-reader should have caught. CLEARLY, everyone was too tired to work on this book.

Finally, the tone of this book is angry and preachy. It throws all concerns out on the table at once - queer representation, classism and lack of diversity in elite circles, climate change, rigged and unaffordable healthcare - but doesn't do much to discuss these concerns using fantasy as a lens. Many of these concerns aren't related to the plot at all, and are thrown out at the most jarring times (like mid-villain monologue). Mostly, Kat just starts yelling, "WHY DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT _____?!" and then runs away. Or Taylor scoffs, "Ew, conformists," and walks away. Yelling at the reader through your protagonists is not a compelling way to get your point across. I care about these themes! But I don't care for this delivery. It's not a discussion, it's a scolding. And alienating the reader from the two PoV characters made me not care to read or recommend this book at all. There are WAY better queer, more diverse, more eco-conscious, and more socially critical fantasies out there.

Another perfect gem from T. Kingfisher! I wish it had been longer, but the story said everything that it needed to say, and extending the horror story would perhaps have felt a bit like adding jump scares to a scary movie just to pad the runtime. No need to bloat a book with spookiness, when brevity does the job!

I love the vampiric nature of the moroi: Entering dreams, stealing life-force, shapeshifting into a winged creature, its presence being signaled by mist, etc. It's an old myth, but a fresh perspective, a creature that hasn't been the mainstream representation of vampires for some time. I also love the Dracula-like assembly of experts who try to assess the sick: The priest, the doctor, the scientist, the folklorist, the soldier... They are the blind wise-people assessing the elephant: Nobody has the full truth of the matter.

And once again, I love how Kingfisher uses a haunting and relates it to veterans. How the war stays with the soldier.

I love that this book made a horror story out of real, scary sleep disorders, like sleep paralysis, or sleep apnea. And considering that this book came out after COVID-19 Quarantine, the sickness at the center of this story is that much scarier and more visceral: Loved ones dying while fighting to breathe, while the people around them argue over which cures are legitimate, or whether the disease is even as sinister as purported. Too real.

A fantastic rainy day read!

A beautifully illustrated edition, and the notes at the back about the time period and the language are really helpful for a modern audience.

A gorgeous, decadent, diversely cast and sensitively written, forbidden paranomal romance and thriller in one! Mwah, Chef's Kiss!!! The reimagining of vampires and shifters as being the more Unseelie of Fair Folk was a nice, unique twist on the usual vampire romance... buuuut the minutiae of each clan, species, family, superpower, what-have-you is missing in this book. I don't know who or what has which powers, or why certain families are at odds... It's promised throughout that "that's a story for another time", so maybe I'll get answers to the magical mechanics in the sequels. BUT a lot of that knowledge is central to the motivations of the serial killer/primary antagonist, sooo the very very VERY ending is a little hollow because I still don't feel I have a full grasp on why the villain did what they did. The mysteries might not be brought to light fully, but the relationship between Celine and Bastien is, and Celine's own personal journey to assert herself in a male-dominated society is. There is heart and yearning and courage at the center of this book, which is strong regardless of what mysterious magical whackadoodle shenanigans are going on around these two characters. Celine and Bastien are universal, and I am absolutely in love with their respective journeys, and inevitable collision. Swoon!

I love the way this book leaned into the story of Rapunzel, with our heroes lost in the desert, blind and bloody. I love how often the "princesses" rescue their beaus - or are intelligent, strong and capable in their own right - and aren't deadweight damsels. And I love the dramatic irony of all these different fairytales weaving together, but none of them knowing the full experiences of the others, so there's a lot of distrust and misinterpretation... It's nice that they're not automatically buddies, they keep true to their personalities while being thrust into vigilantism. The ships, both romantic and space XD, are very sweet (yey Iko and Darla!), and I'm rooting for every single one XD. And, as with the first two books, the worldly conflicts of the plague, racism. refugees, human trafficking, laws which use racial profiling and scapegoating - all very very poignant and timely and hits me right in the heart.

I should be honest, I overrated this book because I enjoyed the ride so much. But it ought to be more of a 4.5...or 4.1... somewhere 4+ish XD. There are a lot of tropes, conveniences, pithy dialogue that dances around getting to the point for dramatic effect, etc. I hate Jacin SO MUCH; there is only one emotionally masked, indifferent and cynical, secretly lovelorn, double agent, and his name is Severus beeping Snape. No one takes The Prince's crown XD. I have no time for Jacin, he's mean and boring, and I hate that HE'S the love interest that's supposed to carry Winter's story. Lame! Plus, big bad Wolf already fulfills the brooding anti-hero quota.

All in all, though, Cress is a great ramp up. Many characters struggle with whether they're doing the right thing, whether noble intentions excuses bad behaviors... It's an uphill battle with a slippery slope on the other side! I am hyped for the finale, and to see who ultimately lands where...