Pam
10/11/2024
3.5 stars
I thought this was just going to be 3 stars for a long time, but once the action picks up I couldn't put it down.
Nicole is a very different character than the MC from the first two books, and I had a harder time liking/relating to her. But the setting, the plotting and the secondary characters all combined to keep me interested until I got fully invested. (Not sure that would have worked if I wasn't already familiar with the world and the characters from the first two books, though.)
Serious trigger warning if you have any issues surrounding food. There is a major storyline involving anorexia. Details here:
***SPOILERS***
The POV character has a serious relapse. Because she is self-aware and there are a few characters that realize/know what is going on, there is a LOT of internal (and external) dialogue surrounding her avoidance of food. I have never been anorexic, and it still came close to triggering me because of the rigid control I have had to maintain on my diet due to chronic illness, autoimmune hypothyroidism and food intolerances. This can lead to something called orthorexia. This is something I've managed to avoid (I could really feel myself skirting it when my diet was at its most limited), but I noticed I was having to force myself to eat when I was reading this. I pretty much read it all in one day, so it wasn't a big deal, but I don't think I would recommend it to anyone who has anorexia triggers. I thought it was handled well in the narrative, but that didn't make it any less intense. And it was INTENSE.
There's another TW that I'm not going to mention, but I'm really glad I knew about it going in. It's a big spoiler, but if you prefer to know those things, you might want to scroll the GoodReads reviews for spoiler tags :)