The end of this book had me sobbing tears of joy and disbelief. I wasn't expecting anything like this when I picked it up, let alone when I started the series two years ago with Deadly Education. The whole book I was desperately rooting for the narrative to end in a satisfying way and I was afraid it wouldn't (you never know with authors, whether they'll have a failure of imagination and leave you with a bad taste in your mouth), but what I feared didn't happen. 

I can't rave about the specifics of what made this book so good without massive spoilers so I won't but Naomi Novik you absolute shining genius. The thread is there through all the books, all the pieces are there and then she snaps them into place with such brutal clarity. I had to put the book down. I think I finally understand the way people kept talking about the Locked Tomb reveals? Except again I argue those aren't good, because there's very little breadcrumbing and things still don't make sense afterward. 

Also, and this is a minor spoiler but I have to call it out

I'm such a sucker for group workings (it's probably the ex christian of the me) and this book has several and they all made me explode with delight and joyful tears. god!!

This book alone made up for the 4 or 5 books I've DNF'd in disgust in the past two weeks. God!!!!!