A review by wonderwomantbh
Trapped! by James Ponti

5.0

4.5 Stars (I'm giving it 5 on here since the things I personally find lacking are arbitrary and made up for by 1. being so fun to read regardless and 2. the fact that 3 books in and the boy and girl are still ONLY friends and nothing has been hinted to the contrary - like, yes, there is certainly an innocent, but tangible chemistry between them that could make a case for this being ripe for a friends-to-lovers slow build trope, but unlike most stories, there isn't even any coy "oh is this your girlfriend/boyfriend" stuff. Like, they say they are best friends and that's taken at face value. What a breath of fresh air.)

I haven't been satisfied by not 1, but 3 books in a series in so long. Seriously, so so satisfying. Not sure if this is intended to be the last book in the series, but if it is, then it ends in such a really good place - while of course leaving you wanting more like any good series does.

I absolutely fell in love with Florian Bates, who reminds me of a little Adrian Monk (aka one of my favorite characters of all time), and his best friend Margaret who radiates black girl magic (this white male author does a fantastic job of both writing a girl character who never feels like "The Girl" trope and a black girl on top of it - seriously, the book hits on the topic of race identity in a way that feels earnest, but I'm also white so this is from a limited perspective and I would be interested in the opinion of Margaret from a WoC).

I got so very invested in these two characters and their fun little adventures and especially Margaret's main side-plot that unfolds over the course of the 3 books. Without giving anything away, I literally did a happy little jig near the end of this book because I was just so pleased and satisfied with the character/plot development.

And speaking of that development I honestly did not expect to love Nick the Knife as much as I did. Usually the ambiguous antihero/villain with a tragic backstory is overplayed and often problematic. Nick is handled so well I don't even know where to start. He continually recognizes that he is not a good person. He does bad things. He is deep in a world of moral corruption. It's this awareness, I think, that gives credence to his complexity as a character. The fact that he knows that he's not good, helps me believe that in spite of this he is capable of goodness because in spite of everything he loves Margaret, and in turn Margaret's mother - who I do wish we would have gotten something more definitive with, if I had any criticism...but I also understand that Nick was the character chosen for Margaret's development via Florian's POV/development and Florian is still the main character. He's definitely woobified, but I don't know, it just works for me with him. Especially since we do still have the moments where Florian describes his ability to transform into something menacing.