The Masked City

Well written, engaging, creative, and a little sexy, what’s not to like?

The character motivations make no sense and the characters themselves don’t feel like real people as a result.

I found the first big climax (the rescue) to be slowly paced and the second (the train) to be driven by nonsensical character motivations.

While a fun idea for a series, the concept of having fae that are “motivated by archetypal stories” or whatever is poorly executed. The fae end up being talked out of finishing Irene off when the villains could have simply yelled “guards” and finished her off. The entire book feels like some said, I’ll show you Deus Ex Machine on steroids! If the Fae are motivated by story, then maybe their actions should make a bit more narrative sense. This type of explanation about Fae motivations is given over and over again, probably because without *some* Kind of explanation readers would be confused as to why characters just start working against their interests.

Another example: Irene tells the audience that the Language won’t work in the in-between-world outside the train because it’s too loud and windy. Three paragraphs later she uses it with just a little extra effort. Twice.

Even the first book had these issues but it’s worse here. (Though as far as the first book goes, I’d also want to point out that the vampires and werewolves only purpose is to be stronger than average so they can fight Irene. Their being specifically vamps/wolves adds literally nothing to the story.)

The author also tediously and frequently repeats narrative information. It got more and more grating as I kept reading.

2 stars because at least I finished it. But a bit of a slog near the middle.

Read the Thursday Next series by Jasper afforded instead.

PS. Not sexy. No clue what that other reviewer is talking about.

The extra bits about the Library and the interview with the author were icing on the cake.