So…. not a lot happens in this book.
And in spite of that I read the entire… 558 pages? In two days.
The majority of the plot is about the journey to the Atlantian homeland. With the exception of one craven attack and one incident where an Ascended shows up looking for Poppy, that’s pretty much it for the first 450 pages.
Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about that. Like I said, I hoovered the book in two days, so obviously I wasn’t bored. I think it functioned as a way of raising the stakes for Poppy – it shows her interactions with the people of Whitebridge and her developing friendship with Kieran, Denlano, Naill and others. And Alastir, who reminds her of Viktor. I do think that build-up is important for what comes later.
I will say the slow burn between Casteel and Poppy felt really artificial. There is now way the two of them were convincing in pretending they weren’t in love with each other so it was a relief when they finally stopped faffing about and admitted their feelings for each other.
Then finally in the last hundred-ish pages – the plot starts to move again. The Ascended finally catch up with them at Spessa’s End and it’s revealed that nobody in Whitebridge survived – the scene where Elijah and Magda’s deaths are revealed is both gross and gut-wrenching. And when they finally make it into Atlantia proper, things are further complicated by finding out that not all Atlantians will be happy to see Poppy.
This is also where Poppy’s powers start to really ramp up, which does not bode well for her enemies in the future.