Bloody hell, this wasn’t worth it. I should have realised that after the first one, the second wouldn’t be much better. But boy, it could still fill a lot of pages with a lot of nothingness. And also, spoilers below, sorry. It’s so infuriating I have to.

I’m not sure I’ve read a book where there is just so much fucking talking. Like books are a lot of internal dialogue and conversations, but this felt like it was 100% of the book. There was so little of anything substantial happening, it was unbelievable. So little plot. So little of anything that actually mattered.

We left the last book with one of the characters (Libby) being kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend who can travel through time, so she doesn’t fall plot to his former initiate’s scheme to take over the magical society that he now runs. And literally all that happens for the entire book, is talking and more talking, and more talking, and even more self reflection and moping by the five other initiates. And so little of it makes any sense if you think about it too hard. Trying to make sense of it is like putting some tissue paper over your head in the rain. It disintegrates very quickly. Even Atlas’ (the head of the society) scheme and motivations seem completely bonkers. He’s depressed so he…wants to create another world? Is that a cure for depression?

There’s only a couple other plot points – Libby escapes, the initiates graduate, they have a fight at the end by people trying to kill them. And then it ends. Libby causes a nuclear explosion to create enough energy to create a wormhole to the future (that sounds interesting, but don’t worry, it was very boring. It also seems to involve a subplot that goes absolutely nowhere, the worst thing). Even the long drawn out plot point of one of the other people in the society having part of his consciousness locked away is ultimately a diversion, with not a real satisfying conclusion. He completed his work and now he’s…different?

I changed my mind about the last review. Don’t read it. Don’t read this one. Genuinely annoying and infuriating.