A lot of what I liked about this book was remnants from Middlegame (namely the concept of embodied concepts, the writing, the mildly confusing nature, and the little cameos from Middlegame characters and how found family esque it felt). Otherwise, this book was a little disappointing coming from Seanan McGuire. I didn’t quite connect to our two main characters or their journey, which felt slightly anticlimactic. I was never on the edge of my seat or questioning how they could possibly get out of situations, and I even found myself once hoping they would lose in order to make the end a little more interesting. But I can’t rate it any lower than four stars simply because I ADORE the concept, and I liked how it was just Middlegame repeated with different concepts, there was a battle and companions and stuff. Still, I think there was SO MUCH potential with the labyrinth that was a little squandered, and almost the first half of the book felt like explanation. Actually you know what, I can rate it lower than 4 stars, it’s getting 3.5 unfortunately. Still I’ll read literally anything in this universe and enjoy it even if logically it’s a 1 star book because EMBODIED CONCEPTS ITS JUST SO COOL.