The blurb of this book makes it seem so dramatic and important. The actual novel feels much smaller, with low stakes and calm feelings. The big conflict of this book is trying to perform a musical in the face of financial and legal challenges. There's also some subplots about some kidnappings and hostage situations, but those take a backseat to the musical.

The novel has many excerpt from two in-world documents: the lyrics of the musical, and the history book that the musical is based on. This takes up a lot of the page time, and I don't think it improved the book. It interrupted the story, and was boring.

However, this book was easy to read, and kept me engaged. I was excited to see how the musical would go on opening night, and the steps leading up to that. It had some cool moments, and made me laugh. But, in the end, not much happens in this book. It's setting up things for the next book, but not actually having those pieces do important things now. It touches on a lot of interesting themes, but doesn't explore them.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Books for a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.