In the author's note at the end, Malinda Lo said that she had been working on this book for 10 years. When I read that, a couple things fell into place. This book is being promoted as a follow-up to "Last Night at the Telegraph Club", but while reading, it didn't feel much like a follow-up. There are not many connections to the characters, aside from a couple references. Which one did she start writing first? I think the book would have been better without what seemed to be a stretch connection that didn't really help the plot.
Overall, the book didn't go as deep as I wanted it to. The writing was beautiful, and I saw the characters develop, but the story still seemed very surface-level, in a way I am having trouble describing. Maybe I was just not in the right mind-set for YA, or I was missing the intricacies of "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" but something didn't hit quite right with Lo's latest.
Overall, the book didn't go as deep as I wanted it to. The writing was beautiful, and I saw the characters develop, but the story still seemed very surface-level, in a way I am having trouble describing. Maybe I was just not in the right mind-set for YA, or I was missing the intricacies of "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" but something didn't hit quite right with Lo's latest.