It had been quite a few years since I read The Golem and the Jinni in its entirety, so I was nervous about jumping into The Hidden Palace head-on. Should I have at least skimmed G&J first? Sure. But the author does a fine job of reminding us who these characters were, what happened, and what's been going on since the events of the last book.

There are multiple narrators, and each one is fully-fleshed, so there was never a time when I thought, "ugh this character again. I just want to skip this part." It's happened a lot in other books, but not in this.

My favorite narrator is Sophia, the girl who had a dalliance with the Jinni and has been suffering unending chills since. She travels the world in search of a cure--and I don't want to spoil the ending but her timeline is well worth the read for how neatly it ties back to the characters in New York.

This book covers over a decade, but the pacing is good. Nothing seemed dragged or rushed. We also get to meet new characters such as Kreindel Altschul, Toby Blumberg (Anna's son), a jinniyeh, and Yossele, another golem!

There is a pointed lack of an evil antagonist in this book, which I personally don't mind. The characters are all battling their inner demons (and sometimes each other) so there isn't any need for a new Schaalman.

What a delight it was to read this over a few days during my flights across the country and back. Highly recommend