That was such a cliffhanger ending. It was crazy. Similarly to the first Nampeshiweisit book, there is almost a slice of life pacing to the story. The characters’ lives feel very mundane in a way that I really appreciate. They’re just trying to be students and teenagers while larger political machinations are at play in the background. And it does all build up to a very climactic conclusion, and I’m excited to see where the next book picks up.

I do kind of wish that more notable moments happened in this book. We only cover about half of the amount of time that book one covered, and there were some parts that I really loved, and some parts that were interesting but not fully resolved. To be fair, the series isn’t over, so it might end up being more helpful to think of books two and three as more one cohesive story.

One of the things I really loved about this book was the representation of polyamory and the clear communication between the characters. I also really liked making chemistry fun and integral to the magic system, though I don’t think you need to know chemistry to understand the idea. I liked getting more of the worldbuilding, and I liked the new characters that were introduced. There were some older characters that Anequs almost looks up to, who I found really entertaining, and there were some younger characters, who were very annoying, as they were meant to be. Of course, being at a predominantly white institution in the year 1842 means that there are plenty of people who spent the whole book annoying me, and it was very entertaining and compelling.

Just like in the first book, I like that all the characters we follow are marginalized in some way or another, and there is a new character who is Jewish, which was cool to see. I just hope that in the next books we get to see more of the skiltakraft, more of the dragons, and just more of the world in general. I can’t wait for book three.