Really confused by the pacing. There was no need to describe and explain every single thought and action...especially in a middle grade novel. This read quite differently from Dragon Pearl and was not an enjoyable read. I may still check out the next one
God, this was SUCH a slog to get through. It started off pleasant and intriguing and went downhill from there...I feel like I knew exactly what was going to happen at any point in the book from the very beginning. I enjoyed T. Kingfisher's writing in The Twisted Ones and was looking forward to this book, but my what an annoying mess it was.
One word for this book: ANNOYING. I was SO pumped for it when I first heard about it! A gigantic mountain pops up in the middle of the Pacific - fascinating premise, so much poential. But from the very start, something with this book was off and it just kept getting worse and worse. Destroyed any shred of originality and anything interesting about the premise. Tried to be so profound and go in so many directions, only to flop in a frustratingly cliche way. The writing was juvenile, the characters bland and exasperating. Super disappointing.
Once again, a book from a series called "An Emma Djan Investigation" has Emma present in only half the book. I'm really not a fan of how much time these books spend giving us the mystery from the POV of the involved rather than the investigation. It's really dissatisfying. But I will note that the writing does improve with each book.