I think my mistake was coming into this with the Netflix series in mind. I was very confused and didn't pay enough attention at the beginning so I had to restart once. 

The characters were pretty much spot on with the series. However, I found Jasper the actor funnier than Jasper on the page. I was also confused about where this sat in the main storyline and had to look that up. However, even knowing it is just after the revolution, it doesn't seem to fit as well. I don't recall any mention of the Shadow Fold, though of course, I may very well have missed it, I just thought it was a big enough thing just recently that it should have had more prominence? Or perhaps the point is that the land is a lot bigger than it seemed in the Shadow and Bone trilogy. 

It's also a lot more YA in tone than S&B. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps it reads better on the page. I enjoyed all the voices, but was also disconcerted that some narrators gave some characters an accent, while others didn't. Matthias for example was read with a Russian accent in by at least one narrator but not his own narrator. 

I am currently on to the second book though so it is good, just not as good as the trilogy IMO.