This book picks up where The Ninth House left off – Alex and Dawes are trying to figure out how to get into Hell to rescue Darlington.
Obviously, you really need to read the first book in the series to care why anything is happening in this book. The last book gave a pretty good flavor of all the secret societies at Yale and why Darlington and Alex are doing what they’re doing at Lethe. This book goes straight for the actions and consequences of why the magic that everyone’s dabbling in matters.
What I really like is that we do get a conclusion in this book (two good ones actually, of some open plot points), but it opens up more possibilities. I really liked honing in on the characters that were the focus of this book, and I’ll be interested to see where things go from here.