If I could describe this story/sequel with only one word it would be boring and unnecessary. I just wanted it to be finished. When I reached the last couple of pages I wasn’t sad or nervous that it would be over soon I was rather relived. It really challenged my self-discipline because all I wanted was too just skip a lot of paragraphs because it was so unnecessary, sometimes it ruined the pacing, sometimes it was just dull descriptions after descriptions and I couldn’t focus anymore. I needed quite a long time to read this book because I never felt the urge to pick it up again, to know what comes next. Since I read the German translation it was quite a easy read with beautiful phrases and sentences, but I felt like some of them didn’t quite fit the era and atmosphere of this book. Which could also be transferred to a lot of conversations and the behavior of several characters. In the end the whole witch hunter world didn’t seem convincing to me and there were some plot holes that could have been fixed. But the most upsetting thing about this book was that it delivered no informations of relevance at all. It felt like I was just reading word after word instead of a real story. The whole plot was flat and could have been avoided if the first book finished it of right. Because the goal of the main character was the same and everyone kinda did the same thing they did in the first book. Also Elizabeth’s actions didn’t develop the story really. Most of her actions were pointless, not only that it didn’t help anyone, but also she didn’t grow form her mistakes. She didn’t loose anything. It was just a way to write more words instead of taking an alternative which might have only taken 3 pages to explain. It was frustrating to read pointless and meaningless pages and pages and acts. Also if Nicolas predicted such a reckless action from Elizabeth why didn’t he do more? He is the most powerful wizard in the world and it needs two teenage girls to trick him? Interesting. Another point that bothered me was the lack of character development. The only one who changed was Malcom and I wouldn’t necessarily count him as one of the main/that important characters. It should also be noted that although he changed he still felt flat like every other character. They had promising shells but unfortunately the author forgot to give them souls. After some weeks I’m convinced that I’ll forget them all because they lacked dimension. They didn’t feel like real people and the author really tried to develop good characters but in my opinion she didn’t manage to do that in the end. Except Elizabeth and John - I will talk about them in a minute - I didn’t see anyone lose anything. I didn’t see them overcoming obstacles, fighting for their sanity, fighting their pain, feeling , aching, growing, getting stronger mentally, physically, emotionally. I couldn’t root for them because nothing happened. No one changed because nothing happened. Now of course John changed - but not permanently. And except for the influence of Blackwells magic he behaved like he did since page one. And he was flawed in a way that his regular self didn’t have flaws. But back to his character changing - apart from the pain it caused Elizabeth it had no great impact. Elizabeth did what she would have done anyway - no matter if John stayed the same or not. And I do admit that I started liking Elizabeth better in this book but her character development was already done in the first book so she also stayed the same as every other character. Also the plot was predictable and had also a lot of plot-holes and sometimes the author just took the easy way out and at some point I got annoyed about reading how Elizabeth was in great danger and nearly faced death and - HA! - just in the right moment someone saved her and this was just a repeating and overused pattern in this story. And it wasn’t even really convincing/“realistic”. It was also unnecessarily long because one could sum up the whole story in less than 5 pages. The end was also just ???????? what?? Elizabeth and Blackwell faced each other at pretty similar terms and this death was just overdue. Why didn’t she just write the shorter versions of whatever this sequel was in the first book ??? I’m tired. But although I wasn’t too delighted & satisfied I think the author did a very good job at describing Elizabeth’s emotional pain and it hit really close to home and made me even tear up. So I can’t say if I regret reading it but if you skip this book you won’t miss out on anything. I guess 12-14 year olds would enjoy this book tho.

Ich habe jede Seite dieser Reihe geliebt ❤