Mercymorn and Augustine's plot thread is MAGIC but the rest shambled along, propelled only by the inescapable life force of its characters. Might buy a copy and cut out the pages that don't involve them. Harrow's own struggles aren't even bad - are in fact quite fascinatingly intricate - but they took so long to crystallise.

I am again in awe of Muir's imagination when it comes to the realm of the Nine Houses and its exhaustive applications of necromancy. I am also again at the mercy of her sense of humour. There is one particular dad joke (if you know, you definitely know) that made me stop and demand reparations from her author photograph. She has delivered unto me a dessert beyond my wildest dreams and makes me eat it with a crazy straw. That said, her vision for the series is so clearly fused with this quippy meme humour that I can't risk wishing it away. And 80% of it is very entertaining. So, like an elderly neighbour, I just tap the ceiling with my broom every so often and whine that she should turn it down.

This is a book for you if you: