well overall it kept me reading, so that's a success!

pros:
- the writing is good, tight and punchy, and keeps the story flowing.

I didn't anticipate Michael being a double agent, though it made a lot of sense.

- I liked the use of Esperanto a lot, it's really interesting to read and see how it relates to English, and I hadn't heard of it before Longman talked about it because of this book. The city of Espere is also rly cool and I enjoyed reading the author notes about it all, and the research Longman did. I'm honestly not surprised the UK is still meeting to trade weapons - compared to America, we seem good in terms of guns and violence, but we've got an awful, bloody history and we still supply a lot of weapons, its shitty.
- I do think I liked the early set of the book best, and I like the worldbuilding with Comma and Hummingbird. I didn't quite feel we got to know everything about the Guilds and why they are as they are, but I'm mightily intrigued to know more.
- I also liked how the range of characters (the names were handled well, so I didn't get confused even though there was a lot of them) showed all the different possible responses to the situation. Toni's reluctant compliance and private defiance, Darragh's compliance to an extent, Michael caving and being consumed by them but wounded by it, Mortimer's quiet and unobtrusive disagreement, Emma's youthful and innocent idealism, etc. All of the characters showed a different path within the world and it's cool to see that when Isabel is bouncing between them, unable to commit to any of them.
- I liked Mortimer and Michael especially. Mortimer's suspicions at the start, and how they morph into fierce desire to help, and how he puts Isabel first when no-one else does (not even Emma, because she has her own shit going on). Michael is completely different but also fascinating, with him first seeming so cowardly but growing into what seems like a friend, and then flipping completely into a villain. and then at the end, he's just sad, and suicidal in visiting Isabel. honestly his death was the one I felt saddest at, because he could've had a neat redemption arc.

cons:
- sometimes the writing went on too long and felt gratuitous in its descriptions of despair. The book sagged a bit in the middle for me, because there wasn't a lot of plot except for 'Isabel is poisoned and dying', and it didn't pick up again till a bit later.

I did guess early on that Emma was gonna die and honestly I didn't really care. And neither did I about Grace. I just felt I wasn't given enough to love them, Grace we barely knew and Emma was too goody-two-shoes and a bit 2D for me

- Isabel's murdery-ness didn't seem too realistic to me. She was fretting over emotions and bonding easily to people, and then just killed the kid and Nick (who's never brought up again, pretty much). Michael hasn't done half as much shit as her and yet she wipes him out. I know it probably shows that being a survivor is selfish and her ability to compartmentalise and her trauma, but it just didn't feel coherant, like there was a real reason she was doing it. Her character felt too... flyaway? inexplicable? unbelievable? I don't know, but I didn't really care much for her.

overall! a good, quick read to get me through a long journey and it was addictive reading and had some interesting world building. But it did drag for me in the middle and didn't evoke much in the way of emotions.