God, this is a hard one to review. On the one hand, this is a very readable book. The pacing is excellent, it flows naturally and every moment is earned. Dee is a likable lead, determined, resourceful, and you can see her build her strength as the story goes along. Gremma is a great ride or die roommate/friend, down for anything if it means backing Dee up.

I grew to like our secondary cast, Cal, James, Riley. Some characters felt underutilized. Cora kind of drops out of the story once she feels like it and we could have used more appearances from the Daemon to flesh out some worldbuiling aspects.

I think that's where some issues of the book come in. Everything feels...sketchy, not filled in. Like there's a good basis of a plot/world, but very little exploration or development beyond surface level. I WANTED to get to know these characters more, I WANTED to learn more about the Daemon other than what we got in the last fifty pages. It led me to feel like the stakes were so low even though they were dealing with an apparent apocalypse. It never really felt tense, it just felt like another job.

But what the book lacks in a deeper plot is emotion. The character dynamics are on point, the losses feel like true losses. You knew there was going to be a sacrifice, it was only a matter of when.

There was a moment when a character's motivation truly baffled me. I thought it was going to be yet another critique of the book, only to have my stomach drop when it was explained at the end.

I'm sure a better version of this book could exist, so I can't say I'm entirely satisfied.

But I will say, I am happy when a book commits to the death of a character, specifically if it's a romantic interest. I just like the gumption.