Debbie Cassidy

I was rather disappointed compared to the first book.

My main problem with this book is the crude plot steering. It makes use of a lot of lazy and very transparent plot devices to make things happen as needed.
The main offences are emotional and impulsive decisions, stupidity to the point of tstl by multiple characters, incredibly contrived and unlikely good/bad luck, and just outride illogical conclusions.

Larger groups act not like collections of individuals but like two-dimensional blobs which all homogenously jump to conclusions to stoke the drama and raise the stakes. Keyword witchhunt. Yea, this is a real dynamic that can lead to catastrophic mob justice but it doesn't happen constantly with every possible demographic every single time a group of people larger than 5 comes together and go from 0 to riled-up mob in a few moments almost every time. It feels like the average IQ in this world is at room temperature. (Yea, I know that doesn't technically make sense because IQ is defined by the average but who cares.)

There seems to be no depth to any of the motivations of any relevant character. This only became apparent in this second book because almost everything was still shrouded in mystery in the first one.

It still manages to keep to its pre-planned consistent plot line but the attention to detail around it, which made it feel so much more natural, is missing.

The MC exhibits more and more of this typical shounen anime hero "I have to save everyone" personality that I just can't stand. This is more a personal dislike than something objectively bad judging by how many people eat this shit up. I am fine with fundamentally believing in the good in people but I also believe in common sense and if the former supersedes the latter I get frustrated fast.

Tbh I believe she shouldn't be employed by the IEPEU at all and fully agree with the judgement of whoever dissuaded her from retaking the exam thingy in the first book. If you really look at all her involvement she always either stumbles into things on pure accident or is deliberately being pulled in by the perpetrator. The only thing she is really good at is being lucky and surviving the shit that is being thrown at her as well as being born special and therefore being interesting to important people. She rarely accomplishes anything at all on her own merit beyond her genetics.
She isn't stupid or incompetent in general but she just isn't good enough to justify the importance, status and level of involvement that is being bestowed on her.

I will continue with the series in the hopes it might get better again as the author is clearly able to do better than this and because I am somewhat caught by her intriguing origins.… (meer)

This one missed 4 stars by a hair.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. The majority of the plot felt really natural. Personalities were consistent if not super complex and most importantly the book kept me on my toes with where the plot would go which is a high order for me nowadays because I recognize typical patterns far too quickly.

Something that bothered me but I don't really know how to put into words are the emotions of the characters. They feel shallow somehow. Some of the MCs personal issues are well written and feel believable but especially emotions invoked by current events seem like they have no impact. It's like characters act out the expected behaviour for a short while but then it's just abruptly over and done with.
Events which should, by all means, have had a deep emotional impact on me as a reader left me unaffected because of this.
It made it very hard to get emotionally invested.
(This issue becomes even worse in the second book of the series.)

The final plot point was the main reason that stopped me from giving 4 stars.
The entire thing with the chant and all that came out of nowhere and felt forced to me.
I liked how the whole affair turned out in the end (in the second book) but that doesn't excuse the lazy setup.

The main plot of the series seems to be pretty well planned out. There are clues that span beyond a single book and it's not just shotgun clues with lots of dead ends either. The author seems to truly have pre-planned most of the plot and placed subtle hints to it from the start. This seems like it should be a matter of course but it's really not. Only very few books actually display this level of planning together with consistent hinting.
I don't want to go too far with my praise here. The plot isn't that intricate but it still deserves to be pointed out because sadly, this is actually quite rare.

I want to mention that this level of polish doesn't extend to the following books. What I said about the plot stays true but how the characters are steered along it becomes outright artless in comparison to this first book.… (meer)