Justified Steel

Yet another Steel teen story that became odder than expected. I both hate and love the flawed and multifaceted characters at its centre and the authors style of writing can be entertaining AF… But, the tempo and pacing was way off. Since moats of the build up and both pre-existing characters and situations from the previous books make out the base for this one it starts of at a steady pace yet takes its time. The first 75% of the book is a detailed dual narrative with lots of personal insight, emotion and character growth all taking place during a few weeks. This is then followed by, not so much a narrative as a rapid fire summary of all the events of the following 7 months only to be punctuated by a 2 minute epilogue and lots of loose ends. If this will be resolved or elaborated on in the next book, I might change my rating but as it stands, this one doesn’t work as a standalone and lacks follow through.