I liked this less than the first two, and that's largely because there's more action (Read: fighting) in it and I feel like Vo's writing isn't quite as strong in those scenes.

There's less of a focus here on the stories Chih collects. They're told in fragments, and we never get to hear a complete one. That's largely the point of the book, that we can never fully know a person, can never get all of their story. And while I understand it and see what Vo was aiming for - and I admire the choice to do something different again with this book - it doesn't quite land for me.

This is still very good, but it's lacking some of what made the first two books in the cycle so special.