C.S. Pacat is still brilliant at composing a compelling story, creating an immersive atmosphere, and hinting at the mystery so that you can play along. I wanted these; I got them. Great. 

However, two annoying literary issues prevented me from loving Dark Rise. They were annoying because I cannot grasp why they are this way.

• Why are you telling us the same information so many times? So many things are overexplained to the point that the backstories become lame rather than fascinating. Please trust your readers. We got it the first time.

• Dialogues and internal monologues are particularly affected by this exposition disease. It's not a crime to use the aforementioned as storytelling devices, but the sloppy execution often makes interactions feel forced and out of place, taking the reader out of the flow of the book.

I'm only being harsh because I loved the Captive Prince trilogy, read the books many times, and did not notice Pacat writing this way there. So I'm dumbfounded why these issues are here now.