So much darker than the other books in the trilogy. Guess the name should really have given it away, but I was still slightly surprised as I still look at this as a children's series.It might just be that it's been awhile since I'd read the two first, so I didn't remember them in as much detail as I perhaps ought to; or that I read those as physical books and listened to this as an audiobook, but I found it very slow to start - I think I was between 25%-33% through before I really got interested in the story. It did capture me at last though, and I enjoyed hearing what happened to Maggie, Reese and Mo next. I thought it a very fitting and beautiful end to the story and loved what happened to Violante ("Her Ugliness").