A Soul Full of Shadows, Derek Landy

 

Book Title: A Soul Full of Shadows

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #18

Date Started: April 4th  2026

Date Completed: May 4th 2026

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Comedy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Regardless of where you find yourself in the Skulduggery saga, Derek has yet to disappoint in the new chapter he's added. With more than 20 full-length novels at this point, still every book is a truly original story, always with new ideas and fresh humour to make me laugh out loud (and that never happens). Nothing is redundant in a Skulduggery story, everything comes back around, and everything comes to an end. And, of course, this wasn't the real end.

I struggle these days with the sheer scale of people, places, magic systems and (now) timelines in the Skulduggery Pleasant world. It's somewhat inevitable, 18 main books and several spin-offs down the line, and luckily the hijinks and thrills don't suffer too much from it. I did find the first half of A Soul Full of Shadows a bit of a drag with predominantly talking and lots and lots of set-up, but the second half was a pure joyride and made up for it.

The sequel series/set of trilogies is not what the original 9-book/3-part trilogy series used to be; they've evolved significantly. Some parts I like, some parts I'm not as keen on - but I don't think I'll ever stop coming back for more, so I'm here for whatever road Derek wants to send a burning Bentley down. It would be nice if Tanith got to have something nice for more than 100 pages, though.

A Heart Full of Hatred, Derek Landy

Book Title: A Heart Full of Hatred

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #18

Date Started: March 31st  2025

Date Completed: April 5th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action, Thriller, Horror

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

The highlight of my year is the new Skulduggery Pleasant book coming out - okay, slight exaggeration but it's something that I always look forward to and enjoy when it comes back around. I have a thousand things to say about the combat, the tone, the magic and the world and where the people fit into and rage against it - but go read my other 17+ reviews of the other books in the series for those because they remain consistent and steadfast.

The evolution of this series never fails to impress me. Of course there's a special connection when you read a story as a kid and it then grows and develops into more mature and complex territory alongside you. But the Skulduggery Pleasant series is so politically conscious, socially aware, and chooses to do something powerful with that it has a special place in my heart.

I'm really enjoying the character focus over plot hijinks in this new trilogy. There's still the classic action adventure, the punching, the world-threatening disasters, the punching, the dry humour, and the punching. But the conflict arises more often from why the characters want to punch each other, rather than the punching happening first and questions asked later.

I'm also very much enjoying where Valkyrie is in her arc. We've progressed from the 'I'm unkillable' to 'I'm very killable, that's scary, but you'll have a hard time trying' and that's really cool. Credit where it's due for giving the same character who we've followed for literally nearly 20 years (that's terrifying) new arcs as they grow. It's what so many sequel series fall down in - twisting their characters into different people to try and give them something new to grapple with - but something that of course people continue to do. We don't overcome one problem in our life and live happily ever after.

On a final note, Derek finally heard my request for more Tanith and I'm very pleased. But I still don't think it's a kids series.

Hell Breaks Loose

Book Title: Hell Breaks Loose

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant

Date Started: June 14th 2023

Date Completed: June 19th 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action, Historical, Mystery, Horro

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Hell Breaks Loose is a very entertaining and cleverly placed adventure with our favourite characters from the Skulduggery Pleasant universe, while we await the last book to the sequel series to release. While I would rather the multiverse would stop infiltrating literally every form of media, it's undeniably hats off to one of the few franchises that actually puts effort into its spin-offs, embedding them so well in the main overarching universe while being entirely enjoyable on their own.

This story wasn't what I expected, while simultaneously being precisely what I should have seen coming. Once it gets into the swing of things, it's the classic action-adventure I fell in love with as a child, alongside the good old-fashioned drama and comedy that my adult self appreciates even more so.

The action is always so impressively written; it flows, the chaos is vivid, the movement articulate. You can see it playing out, startingly, in your head like a movie. And, always, Derek plays with violence and conflict and pain in an accessible way without glorifying it; action scenes leave scars, people get hurt, people are conscious of their actions. Those are all factors that so often are just left behind because they're heavy, and even more so with characters who you're supposed to root for without descending your book into discussions on moral philosophy. Derek touches on the dark, but has such an appreciation for the light (be it comedy, characterisation, motivation) that he can do both.

Hell Breaks Loose isn't my favourite in the series, but it's absolutely grounded in its universe, and fully appreciates its place and opportunity. This book is fun and easy to read in a way that a series sometimes limits; it's just what I needed for a little summer holiday action.

The Screaming Staircase

Book Title: The Screaming Staircase

Author: Jonathan Stroud

Series: Lockwood & Co #1

Date Started: April 12th 2023

Date Completed: April 21st 2023

Genres: Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to Double Day for this proof copy for review (from 10 years ago, I'm sorry) ◆

Having enjoyed the show, and receiving this proof copy in the mail about a decade ago, I thought it was time to have a little easy read from my TBR. The first Lockwood & Co book was good fun, exciting and spooky, and just the sort of thing I was looking for. Like the show, the well-balanced mix of worldbuilding and fantasy building, fleshing out parallels and similarities with our own reality, was pretty key in making the spoopy ghost-hunting adventures feel more mature and complex, with bigger enemies clearly at play behind the curtain and waiting for the heroes to find them.

It's fair to say that the recent Netflix adaptation is really quite faithful to the book, though this first novel instalment takes up a mere couple of episodes as the start of the tv series. On reflection, of course it was destined for Netflix glory as its episodic style, with multiple seemingly unrelated threads all tying together into a chilling finale is the perfect source material for such creations. And, even though I know the story and its twists, I still found experiencing it in its original medium engaging.

The most significant area of surprise for me was how unkind to its characters the prose is. There are constant jokes about George's weight (there isn't a single time he's referenced that doesn't include exaggerating his size) and Lucy 'smiling prettily' to get her way and being more 'sensitive to emotions' than the boys. Look, I don't think it's unfair to say that it hasn't aged very well in the last 10 years. That had no small part in making me appreciate the TV show and how well it adapted the story, developing areas of weakness and utilising the cinematic and enthralling mysteries and themes.

Unfortunately, the early 2010s attitude of body shaming and casual sexism isn't honestly something that fills me with a great desire to continue the series in book form, though I hold big hopes for the continuation of the more culturally-conscious Netflix adaptation bringing me more exciting ghost-hunting adventures with (their version) of the gang.

Until the End

Book Title: Until the End

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #15

Date Started: April 18th 2022

Date Completed: May 10th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Action, Horror, Comedy

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I love this series - I adore it. But even I have to admit that there is a lot going on at this point. Amazingly, I can still follow most references and a lot of names, but there are some moments where I have to scan my brain. Regardless, these books are just so enjoyable to read. How many books do I get to read that just make me feel happy, make me laugh, and make me proud?

The politics is always so good in Derek's books, especially since he upped the audience's age with this sequel series. And not just the parallels to our own world, but also the empowerment of characters in smaller ways and their own agency within situations that are largely outside of their control. It's nice to know I made good choices as a young reader, and it was an honour to get to grow from a child, to a teenager, to an adult with these books.

Of course, with this being a Derek Landy book, some of the twists are satisfying. But I do want to say I'm not a fan of the trope where everyone is ultimately related to each other - I much prefer when people have their own agency to get themselves into trouble. I don't think it completely strips the characters of their own identities in Until the End, as often happens when this is used, but it was a moment where I just had to have a little sigh before I carried on. That being said, there was also another certain trope at the end and the way Derek pulled it off is the only time I've come across it done well.

Until the End seems to have tied up a lot of threads of the series ahead of what I believe is the final book. That's actually very, very clever; the last one won't need to be obsessed with finishing all these storylines and instead get to tell its own narrative focused on completing the characters' arcs rather than cleaning up in-jokes and mysteries. I'm sure it will be just as epic as we've grown to expect, and are never disappointed by.

Gallant

 Book Title: Gallant

Author: V.E. Schwab

Date Started: February 9th 2022

Date Completed: February 20th 2022

Genres: Horror, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I found this honestly pretty underwhelming. I'm really glad Schwab is growing and developing her stories into what she's always wanted to write, and I support her journey in that. Her new stuff is just less my thing, and that's okay - the gothic ghostliness is fun I just personally don't often click with it. I will say, though, that there was a lot of internal monologuing, spookiness and pretty writing and not a lot of anyone doing anything until the end.

Gallant is a class in doing a Ghosty House 101. It's not so much a mystery because there's no real reveal (it dips more into fantasy than thriller), but if you love a Gothic ghost story you're looking in the right place. Looking back at it, it really reminded me of Coraline, Mexican Gothic and a handful of other Gothic stories - and maybe that's why I wasn't a massive fan. It ticked all the boxes but didn't really provide anything else.

And, while I appreciated having a mute protagonist, the book didn't really do much with it. And it doesn't have to - normalised representation is good too - but it felt like there was wasted potential in a story that delves so much into fantastical possibilities. Or, failing that, even just thinking about it more past that sometimes people ignore her because they can't read sign language.

Overall, I think I may start giving Schwab's ghost stories a pass; I've tried a handful now and they're just not my thing. Very much support her growth as an author, but I think pushing myself to read stuff that I'm just not interesting isn't worth it - life's too short!

Mexican Gothic

 Book Title: Mexican Gothic

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Date Started: July 28th 2021

Date Completed: August 7th 2021

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Mexican Gothic was a lot of fun. Overflowing with Del Toro vibes (Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth, even a little The Devil's Backbone), it's tense and atmospheric, clearly a love letter to classical gothic tales. But Moreno-Garcia adds a brilliant twist of setting the story in 1950s Mexico and spinning the genre on its head for a more modern audience.

As its namesake suggests, this book is a perfect gothic tale at the start, though it becomes more horror towards the end. The tone, that we may have been pretty familiar with, turns slightly weird as it spins on the classic genre into slightly more modern sensibilities for its reveal and resolution. While this wasn't unsatisfying, I can't help but feel some tonal notes could've been adapted from the gothic horror and incorporated as well. For example, I wish we'd got a bit more ghosty action. Most of the plot is Noemí arguing with the family her cousin has been swept away to and whom she is trying to her rescue from. The ghost bits are fantastic, but few and far between in the end.

That being said, the story instead focuses on Noemí herself more than necessarily the mystery. And Noemí rises to the challenge; she's the perfect balance of fierce, glamorous and smart. The rest of the characters are sometimes fitted a little too conveniently around her to create tension for her temperament, but it's still enjoyable to watch a female character as fashionable and fascinating stand up to bullies.

I think where this book falls short is the fact we just don't get to sink our teeth into the mystery as much as I (and others, from what I've read) would've liked. It's a fascinating and compelling idea and the moments of surrealism and ghosty terror as great, but they're crowded in amongst arguments and wandering around and dialogue upon dialogue. All of it is soundly structured and realised, I just wanted more.

Ninth House

Book Title: Ninth House

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: Alex Stern #1

Date Started: April 4th 2021

Date Completed: May 11th 2021

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

Ninth House ended up being more gothic-occult horror than mysterious detective adventure - what made me think it was going to be the latter I'm not sure, but it was a bit of change in direction at first. That's not any real problem with the book, but it definitely contributed to what made me move at a snail's pace (it took me more than a month to read this): it's just a bit more convoluted than it needs to be. While the voice of Jake Peralta kept saying 'cool motive, still murder' in my head throughout, it felt morphed a bit into 'cool story, still slow'.

There's a lot of information piled on you in the whole book, but especially at the start. I honestly still don't really understand the magic system and I couldn't name the different houses, let alone match what discipline is from which house, or what person is in what house; I just about got on top of the classical codenames by the end (Alex is Virgil right... right?). Ultimately, if you latch onto the brilliant cast of characters, nothing else matters too much, but I think it's worth saying that I'd hope later books in the series continue to make distinctions because I need a handbook.

I really like the themes Bardugo chooses, but they are slightly lost amongst the genre pieces in this. The classism and casual sexism, the gaslighting and prejudice against addicts, is interesting and nice to actually see tackled amongst fantasy, but it fades into the background when it isn't used as the main issue of the scene (where it knocks you over the head a bit).

Ultimately, Ninth House did not need to be anywhere near as long as it is. The last third was great and I blasted through the end of the story, but the first 200/300 pages was a lot of extra stuff that wasn't necessary for it. I will say that I'm a big fan of books that finish their own story arcs satisfyingly but leave questions unanswered and strings left untied so there's somewhere to go. Whether I'll read the next instalment, I'm still unsure. More because Ninth House just wasn't really my thing and it taking so long to get to the point made it less enjoyable for me.

Jurassic Park

Book Title: Jurassic Park

Author: Michael Crichton

Series: Jurassic Park #1

Date Started: October 29th 2020

Date Completed: October 30th 2020

Genres: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Thriller, Horror

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Michael Crichton's original story is anything but a novelisation of the film that has become so iconic, and I can see why a lot of people who know the film don't necessarily like the book. But I personally found this to be a great novel, if of course flawed. And actually, knowing the process of translating prose to screenplay, I was more impressed by both the source material and Speilberg's wonderful work to adapt it.

I think we all appreciate that it's impossible not to compare this book to the film, so I'll get the major things out of the way. The big changes are that Alan Grant likes kids (shocking, right?), the girl is actually the younger sibling and pretty much useless, and there are a lot more dinosaur encounters written down than end up in the film. In a broader sense, the book is both slower and faster-paced; the first section is all about the mystery of this strange lizard that has been found while the audience tries to work out what's happening - it's pretty obvious to all of us now, but I did like the way it really built up the ripple effect of Hammond's creations before we even got into the meat of what he had created. I'm also going to point out that the women in the novel are far less prominent, and written as figureheads. While Crichton is aware of the sexism that's around them, he doesn't do much to oppose it other than inferring to it a few times.

Aside from those inevitable comparisons, however, I was really impressed at how creepy and tense this story was. Considering it's written and has no actual visuals of dinosaurs for the reader to reference, it's very vivid and wonderous. Having been a dinosaur-obsessed child (as so many of us are) I could picture a lot of them, but even so their behaviour, the way they moved, the mere presence of size and strength was tangible.

The whole book reminded me a lot fo the Martian. It's very much fiction but backed up with a lot of constructed science, and very convincing. A lot of the tension is in the reader's realisation as the writer explains the evidence. A little unexpectedly, Crichton does a lot of this with maths as well as biology (Malcolm is even more pretentious than in the film if that's possible) and even starts delving reasonably deeply into philosophy. Again, potentially another reason why some people don't totally engage with it.

Overall, I really enjoyed Jurassic Park, although it does become repetitive the further on you go when it basically becomes Grant and the kids having various encounters with dinosaurs that only really differ depending on a very specific characteristic that highlights the behaviour of said species they run into. But you can tell it's an influential work of fiction because even the new films are still borrowing things from this first book.

Seasons of War

Book Title: Seasons of War

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #13

Date Started: April 1st 2020

Date Completed: April 5th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Thriller, Horror, Action, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Seasons of War, number 13 (thirteen!) in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, i.e. perhaps my most loved book series of childhood and my teenage years. It's got a tough act to follow, but it didn't disappoint. This has definitely been my favourite instalment in the sequel series so far; it's a bit like reading all those stories Skulduggery and the others would tell Val about the 'old days'. It was always so wistful, mysterious, and adventurous, and now we get to live through it - albeit, in an updated context. I loved that open-world feel, this real sense of a slow epic in a war the characters had to steadfastly, nobly live through.

But it has to be said: it's so nice to have hope again. We're starting to see Valkyrie and other characters defeat their demons and start up again after some really gruelling stuff in the last few books. I always liked the fact that this sequel series follows the consequences of everything Val went through as a teenager, and a really important part of that is showing that she can survive and find a way to live with the after-effects too (which she was definitely struggling with a few books ago).

As well, it was so good getting to see old friends again. Even if Derek just uses it as a way to torture us by putting them in terrible situations. Honestly, this felt like the first book I wasn't sitting there going 'where's Tanith? You mentioned Dexter, when are we going to see him? What about this other character from the original series, are they going to turn up at any point?' While it's no fault of Derek's, I have been distracted from the story in the past few instalments with the excitement that I might get to see an old friend again. I felt like that need was satisfied this time around.

My one observation that doesn't click is that there are just too many subplots. A lot of them were introduced earlier in the series, but aren't relevant anymore, or have been left unfinished, but they're still in the story, I guess to be consistent. I appreciate that more than them being abandoned, especially since stories are unruly things that will change unexpectedly, but it is sometimes a bit strange. Didn't Tanith want to kill China for an unknown reason? Wasn't the US president super important? Wasn't the Omen-Auger stuff supposed to be the main focus at one point? In all fairness, a lot of them have influenced the main story, but there's some which I feel like could've been wrapped up in the last book or even held back until they became important again.

The elephant in the room is does it feel like the original series? Does it have the same magic? And, honestly, the answer is no. It's darker, crueller, more twisted like it's grown up with a lot of us that were reading these books when we were kids. And though I can't help but go into these books with the original series at the back of my mind, I don't think it's a bad thing that it's different - it's just different. And, at the end of the day, it still leaves me waiting for more, and that's the important thing.

The King of Crows

Book Title: The King of Crows

Author: Libba Bray

Series: The Diviners #4

Date Started: January 16th 2020

Date Completed: February 10th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Mystery, Romance, Horror

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I’ve been awaiting the finale of The Diviners series for a few months and suddenly it appeared at my door, when I’d quite forgotten about it. And suddenly I was sucked straight back down the rabbit hole into Bray’s supernatural, ghostly 1920s New York adventure, even on crowded commuter trains in the gloom of British winter. It barely took me three days, and I absolutely loved it.

Okay, yeah, the final resolution was actually quite easily solved, but it was emotionally satisfying and at the end of the day that’s more important for me. I’ll admit that the way characters’ emotions were generally put at a level that was convenient for the plot rather than their arcs annoyed me a little (Sam should be more worried about his mother, surely? Evie should be more upset about Will? Why has everyone forgotten about Woody?!). But it’s also the kind of thing that you get used to with this series; with a cast of characters so big it’s likely that some of their side-plots are going to fall through the cracks.

To the book’s credits, all of the characters do still sustain a full arc, finishing neatly in this final novel. I thought it was slightly obsessed with the romances, a little more than was necessary, but nevertheless allowed the protagonists to grow within themselves. I don’t have the time to single every person out, so I’ll just say this about Evie, arguably the main protagonist but my personal favourite either way. Evie is a very flawed character, who I root for ceaselessly. And everyone knows I’m a fan of Evie and Sam, but I loved that this also felt like the platonic love story of Evie and Theta, and Evie finally coming to terms with having balanced friendships with what I can only see as depression and possibly PTSD. That in itself means a lot to me. 

All round, Bray allows her characters to have conditions, histories or general struggles that they suffer from, but can live through – as well as defeating the king of an undead army while they’re at it. You have a disabled character, characters with mental health difficulties, characters of African, Chinese, Irish heritage, characters of varying sexualities (including asexual!). I have never read another book that has that much representation. And none of their stories – none of them – are solely about these parts of their character.

One of the things that has always been strong with this series is its portrayal of 1920s America – a fair amount of which is based off of fact which might surprise some readers. And while the last instalment does feel less political than the rest of the series it was, after all, tying up the ends of the story with its political points already made many times. And the representation truly is gold, all the way through. The cast is so diverse, their identities normalised but acknowledged with all the societal prejudices they come with. But Bray represents it proudly, which makes it empowering.

This series has been an absolute joy to read from start to finish. It’s entertaining to read, indulgently romantic without being sickly. It knows when to make a scene exciting or scary, heartfelt or cold, and its representation is one of the best examples of diversity in YA out there at the moment. The King of Crows was a fitting end to the series, and for once I’m actually excited about the potential for a sequel series that’s sort of (?) hinted at in the epilogue.

Before the Devil Breaks You

Book Title: Before the Devil Breaks You

Author: Libba Bray

Series: The Diviners #3

Date Started: August 19th 2019

Date Completed: August 21st 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Mystery, Horror, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

Book three down in less than a week and it's only getting better. I devoured this book, loved every minute, and cannot wait for the last instalment in this series (I mean that literally, please help me).

As I've seen other people say, Bray's narratives are so good because they make the personal political. These books are about the Diviners as much as the ghost stories they solve. And that's empowering from so many angles; yes to girls saying goodbye to manipulators, yes to people of colour being proud of their backgrounds, yes to people recognising their own worth. It's of course very timely for the world we're currently in, and you can't help but feel the comparisons hovering very obviously behind some of the prejudice and violence. If anything, that makes it all the more effective.

Before the Devil Breaks You is essentially two stories in one, and that actually worked well. The first half is very much like the previous books and their ghost hunting arcs. But going into the second half of the book, a bigger world is opened up and things get serious. It's like we went from a 1920s Scooby-Doo to a full-blown blockbuster in the best way. And it suddenly exposed that Bray has had everything planned for a long time - or at least it feels that way. It doesn't feel like Bray is trying to sneakily make it seem like she's going somewhere just to make sequels, I trust that things are just being revealed now.

The Diviners is like a television drama. It's taken me three reviews to get to a point of saying that confidently because Before the Devil Breaks You really brings it home: every single one of the massive cast have their own story arc which is intrinsically fed into the main plotline. Everyone has their ambitions, weaknesses, and moments in the sun, even if they're not included in every single climax or battle (because, frankly, there's so many of them I don't know how you could). And it's glued together with their relationships, held up by proper platonic love as well as romantic (though I must admit, I'm a sucker for Evie and Sam more than ever).

Like ghost stories, secret conspiracies, and mystery? Like the roaring 20s in New York? The backstreet underground of it too? Complex girls who won't take nonsense, and boys with developed personalities? Diversity and representation? Then Libba Bray's Diviners series should be on your list. I picked up the first book on a whim, and six days later I'd read all three available books. They're fun, they're engaging and they touch on some really important topics in an accessible way.

Lair of Dreams

Book Title: Lair of Dreams

Author: Libba Bray

Series: The Diviners #2

Date Started: August 15th 2019

Date Completed: August 17th 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Mystery, Romance, Horror

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Book two of the Diviners series down, and I'm still rolling ahead to devour the next one. With her television-size cast of characters, places and plot lines, Bray is shaping up to be quite the storyteller as she keeps expanding her world with remarkable control. Slightly pretentious analysis aside, Lair of Dreams was just as enjoyable as the first installment in the series, even if it depended more on the friction between characters than to their plight.

You gotta love some light-hearted romance where the girls have just as much self-respect as they deserve; you gotta love some creepy ghosts making things go bump in the night; you gotta love the roaring twenties and its dreamers trying to make their way in it. Add a flair of fantasy and you have the Diviners, a group of gifted young people converging closer and closer as something wicked this way comes. It was really exciting that we got to expand into Chinatown in Lair of Dreams, and I'm still impressed by how well balanced the narrative is between so many characters and cultures and their individual subplots. It's why I keep referencing television writing because each character's personal arc often seems more at the forefront of their chapters than the overall plot does - which has its pros and cons.

The Diviners, the first book, relied a lot on the Naughty John plotline to glue everything together; Lair of Dreams is far less concerned with its ghost story. Instead, it drops hints upon hints of what's to come: foreboding FBI agents, missing mothers, traitors in family homes, suspicious premonitions, surprising connections weaving everyone together since before they were born. The 'dreaming killer' plotline is still there, and ultimately resolved, but it felt like it was on a backburner. Honestly, this was mostly fine - it meant less momentum but we have enough investment in the characters are this point for it to work - but my one hesitation lies in if whatever's coming is coming fast enough? I want to sink my teeth into this big conspiracy hiding behind them instead of popping back and forth between a ghost story, a melodrama as well as the 'ultimate test' that's approaching.

But until then, I am still totally occupied with the Diviners themselves. Evie (who seems to be the protagonist, in my mind, just from the structure of the series) continues to be fascinating selfish and irrational but complex and heroic. But it's also really nice that each character gets to take the limelight for a bit because you do feel affection for them all. It's interesting that quite a few people are in different power positions than they used to be, and constantly evolving. Evie has a radio show, Sam's living well off the museum, Theta's rising in the ranks on stage, Henry's changing his dreams, Mabel's standing up for herself, Jericho's starting to reach out of his comfort zone. It keeps things moving even when the main story isn't so much in focus, and mostly importantly it makes us root for these developing characters because they feel so much more real.

Guess who's already bought the next book and is devastated she has to wait until February for the last book? This girl. I've raced through these novels pretty fast, but I don't feel like I've exhausted them of their entertainment just yet. They're reasonably long books but they're so easy to topple into that it feels like the blink of an eye, and that's really what books are supposed to do. Small flaws aside, Bray has reached the heights of escapism and that's all we readers can ask for.