M

Eh.

Let me just say, I really wanted to like this book. It wasn't bad, but I found it to be extremely frustrating, in large part because of the lack of moral complexity, particularly in regards to the one-dimensional, moustache-twirling villains, none of whom were believable as actual human. Their thirst for revenge for perceived humiliations and power wasn't presented as a believable motivation, but was a caricature taken to ridiculous extremes, basically so their schemes could function as reverse deux ex machina whose purpose was to service the plot by throwing obstacles and misfortunes in the protagonists' way.

Other than that, I thought that the character voices and the dialogue came off as way too modern for the setting, and I personally thought the long passages on architecture, while fascinating in a different context, took away from the plot. But neither of those things bothered me as much as the lack of moral complexity.

Overall, I like the first book quite a bit more. I did appreciate two specific things from this one though:

First, Bad Wednesday actually had a sense of menace in regards to whether Jane would be kept in the bowl against her will. I don't really remember a sense of danger at any point in the first book, so that was an interesting addition.

Secondly, Bert was in the last chapter. I love Bert, so this little scene raised the entire book in my estimation.