After the dangerous relic of a serial killer is stolen in a daring heist, Krona and her fellow Regulators must uncover the greater conspiracy at play and recover the mask to keep the murders starting up again from beyond the grave.
Not only is this book is an intriguing mix of fantasy, suspense thriller, and horror, but it is also stuffed chock-ful of unique world-building and follows three separate POVs, each with their own storyline. It definitely is a lot, but the author does a decent job of keeping the story balanced.
The stakes are high from the start, and only get higher as you plunge deeper into the book and understand more of what’s going on, which helps keep the tension up over more than 22 hours of narration. I enjoyed the complex world-building, as well as following Krona’s investigation into who’s stolen the mask and what they mean to do with it. I also thought the author did a great job with the two romances in the story, which is impressive since they must form a minor thread in the greater plot.
However, bouncing between different storylines does mean that we don’t get to know all the characters, especially supporting characters, as well as is needed to get emotionally invested in what happens to them. Since some pretty bad things happening to supporting characters, this is a major issue. The pacing also lags in places, so you end up pretty frustrated about being torn away from a compelling section of one storyline to a rather dull part of another.
The audiobook is narrated by three narrators, Nicholas Khan, Shala Nyx, and Vera Chok – a different narrator for each POV characters, which I enjoyed. Over such a long book, it really does help keep all the storylines in order.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
