Rating : 2 ⭐
All throughout this book, I kept feeling like too much of it was written to appease the critics. There was an attempt made to resolve some plotlines from previous books, but it didn't feel satisfying because there just wasn't enough time to explore them fully. I'll admit, I was critical of the lack of resolution between Sarah and Arthur in "Calculated Risks", and I felt the same when "Backpacking Through Bedlam" ended before the family could reunite. The author attempted to remedy all of this at once but it felt like too much for this one book to handle. Add to that the constant repetition and justification of every single move the main character made, and I got the impression that this was written way too defensively. It's like the author preemptively had to overexplain the logic behind every choice to shut up the critics. Once I started noticing it, it was impossible to ignore and it really got on my nerves. Aside from that, I thought the plot was fine and I liked getting a book from Mary's point of view. The character deaths were sad, but clearly the central characters of the series were not in actual danger of dying, because it would probably derail the plot of the series too much. I don't really know where this series will go from here.