Thankfully, this was much better than the first book in the trilogy. I'd argue that at times it felt like it should have in fact been the first book. There was so much more explanatory world building in this novel, there was so much more context. We actually found out about the origins of the Vorrh and the local town. Something that was barely touched upon in the previous novel which is pretty strange when you consider that the town is such a huge part of the story. I think as a whole, the first novel had more descriptive world building when this novel has more context and explanations. In my opinion, this should be the other way around, I found myself so much more invested in this book compared to the first. There was much more focus on the story this time around, I found the number of weird, out of place segments had definitely decreased, they didn't disappear completely but I found the reading experience much more bearable. I have found myself very invested in Ghertrude's story, I will mainly be reading the third novel to see how her story plays out. I like how the reader learns everything at the same time as Ghertrude, it adds tension to her story. I'm still not convinced by this trilogy, I'm definitely not enjoying it but there is a certain level of intrigue that is keeping me going.