Honestly I felt like a lot of this volume was a bit meandering on Alina's part and a bit too blunt and obvious about the mystery. I enjoyed it, as I simply enjoy the characters, but it felt like a fairly weak volume.

But I think the climax and denouement are handled so well that it redeems the weakness of the first 70% or so of the book. There's a solid emotional impact, it drives home solid themes (maybe a bit too blatantly, but not poorly, at least), and develops the overall plot with the dark gods, overtime, and the relationship between Jade and Alina in good ways. It turned out to be a good entry that just took a long time to get going.