After I read "In the Woods" and almost ripped the book in half after the ending, one might have called it ~unwise~ for me to even consider giving another Tana French book a spin. But her writing was so enchanting and the atmosphere of the Dublin Murder Squad was completely engrossing, and before I knew it and kind of without my consent I was picking up the second book in the series. And MAN I'm glad I did; this had all the same creepy atmosphere and building tension and racing-through-to-the finish vibes of the first book, with an ending I could actually live with! IMAGINE?!??!

Seriously, I really really loved this story. Cassie (who was a badass in the first book and was straight up wronged) encounters her murdered doppelgänger/evil (maybe good) twin and has to pretend to be her in a house of oddball secret-keeping students? YOU COULDN'T DRAG ME AWAY. I loved the characters, the development of the plot, and the revelation of the group's cracks along the way, because it kept you on your toes and basically expecting that everyone had something to hide. The plot dragged a tiny bit in the middle, but I was basically living inside of Whitethorn House at that point so I was too caught up to care.

The only gripe I had with the book was the vague but fairly frequent references to Operation Vestal, which drove the plot of "In the Woods" and pretty much brought Cassie to the point she was at the start of "The Likeness." Having just read "In the Woods," I was pretty up to speed on the ins and outs of that case, what it had done to Cassie, and how Rob played a role in her life and her downfall because of it. But the case was never really explained in "The Likeness," and it seemed like a bit of disservice to readers who hadn't been through the first installment to leave them in the dark or sort of guessing about something that had so deeply affected Cassie and her decision-making in this book. But again, since I did read it, it was only a minor annoyance for me and had really no impact on my enjoyment of the book.