The Renée Sequence

Finding herself aboard ‘The Black Train' with no memories of her past, Renée Vérité is sent to different locations by a pair of twins to find her missing parents.

Each location is a fantastical adventure where she must complete some task for a strange guardian that will help her on her way... She never really puts the pieces of who these people are together until the very end but the reader should pick it up fast.

These sections get very crazy and over the top with scenes like a raven and octopus mix creature chasing her while she flies on top of a giant red butterfly. Yeah. It's fun and well written and gives the book some action.

She is being chased by a being called The Abstract, your typical Lovecraftian unknowable monster/force. This thing, whatever it is, likes to break into her journeys and cause chaos.

The twins have sections in between Renee's various outings that are set up like stage plays and I thought they were kind of annoying and didn't really see the point to them. Just trying to play up the mystery, I guess.

With all these things going on the book is grounded through Renee and her search for her memories so it's not all constant insanity. It all comes together in the end well enough although it leaves a bit of confusion on just why this all happened in the first place.