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Better than book one by a long shot - for one thing, the world building and characters are much more strongly defined. It makes all the difference to getting us understanding the curse workers' underground world of grift and grime. A little slow maybe, but more engaging.
The basic plot has three prongs:
1 - The Short Con - aka Someone's killed Phillip and the Feds want Cassel to tell them who. With hustler mom out of jail, Barron his fake best friend, Sam and Daneca getting more involved in his shady life, he's just got to work out who did what and who to trust while...
2 - The Side Hustle - aka Getting The Girl (Or Not As The Case May Be): Lila's been cursed to swoon over Cassel whether she likes it or not. He likes it, but hates himself for liking it. She's conflicted too. How can they tell if their emotions are their own? They need a distraction, and that leads to...
3 - The Long Con - aka Workers' Rights. That plot strand hidden away in book one about workers being treated badly by the government, new regs coming in to control them under the guise of "for the greater good"? Mhmm. Cassel and co have views on that, all the while battling rumours and prejudice at their fancy school.
The romance angle is worked harder this time (obviously easier now Cassel's not got memory problems and the girl of his dreams isn't a cat), and while I'm so glad it doesn't overwhelm the bigger picture, I personally wasn't really feeling it. I just find the characters cold and distant still, like their emotions are told too bluntly or something. It's not unbelievable that two characters like each other, just... There's a spark missing, if that makes sense. All of the characters try so hard to be characters, but I just can't connect with them. It reminded me a little of [a:Leigh Bardugo|4575289|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1534446099p2/4575289.jpg].
If you liked Cassel working the con, then again you need to wait until the last third of the book before it gets really good. He's an intelligent character, but boy oh boy does it take him an age to put together the pieces of the murder-mystery he's trying to solve. The "how's he gonna get out of this one?" is again the best part of the story.
I also really liked the school/protest march stuff; this book may have been written quite some time ago but it seems personal rights are never out of fashion. The kids aren't overzealous, but try to feel empowered by standing with others. It's still a good message (even if Cassel is kinda lukewarm about it to begin with).
The ending leaves us with a more interesting problem for Cassel to solve than the love angle at the end of book one. Big choices are coming up. How is he gonna get out of this one?
The basic plot has three prongs:
1 - The Short Con - aka Someone's killed Phillip and the Feds want Cassel to tell them who. With hustler mom out of jail, Barron his fake best friend, Sam and Daneca getting more involved in his shady life, he's just got to work out who did what and who to trust while...
2 - The Side Hustle - aka Getting The Girl (Or Not As The Case May Be): Lila's been cursed to swoon over Cassel whether she likes it or not. He likes it, but hates himself for liking it. She's conflicted too. How can they tell if their emotions are their own? They need a distraction, and that leads to...
3 - The Long Con - aka Workers' Rights. That plot strand hidden away in book one about workers being treated badly by the government, new regs coming in to control them under the guise of "for the greater good"? Mhmm. Cassel and co have views on that, all the while battling rumours and prejudice at their fancy school.
The romance angle is worked harder this time (obviously easier now Cassel's not got memory problems and the girl of his dreams isn't a cat), and while I'm so glad it doesn't overwhelm the bigger picture, I personally wasn't really feeling it. I just find the characters cold and distant still, like their emotions are told too bluntly or something. It's not unbelievable that two characters like each other, just... There's a spark missing, if that makes sense. All of the characters try so hard to be characters, but I just can't connect with them. It reminded me a little of [a:Leigh Bardugo|4575289|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1534446099p2/4575289.jpg].
If you liked Cassel working the con, then again you need to wait until the last third of the book before it gets really good. He's an intelligent character, but boy oh boy does it take him an age to put together the pieces of the murder-mystery he's trying to solve. The "how's he gonna get out of this one?" is again the best part of the story.
I also really liked the school/protest march stuff; this book may have been written quite some time ago but it seems personal rights are never out of fashion. The kids aren't overzealous, but try to feel empowered by standing with others. It's still a good message (even if Cassel is kinda lukewarm about it to begin with).
The ending leaves us with a more interesting problem for Cassel to solve than the love angle at the end of book one. Big choices are coming up. How is he gonna get out of this one?