I didn’t enjoy this book as much as House on the Cerulean Sea. The plot took quite a while to get started (the first half of the book felt like preamble). The core conflict wasn’t well defined — there were plenty of smaller conflicts

Spoiler

(Arthur learning that he doesn’t have to shoulder all the burdens himself, David overcoming his traumas and allowing himself to be loved, and of course the external fight against DICOMY and its inspector)

, but none of them felt like The Central Conflict (tm). The villain was a moustache-twirling caricature, and the stakes never felt real. Indeed, the ultimate resolution to the external conflict was something that could have happened at literally any time and I’m genuinely surprised it wasn’t the first thing that happened when the inspector arrived on the island. Sure, there were some genuinely funny moments with the children, and a few heartwarming ones, but on the whole this book fell flat for me, especially after House on the Cerulean Sea. Ah, well — that’s how it goes with sequels sometimes.