Nona the Ninth

So, sadly I am yet again reminded that I am old. I'm no longer able to keep details of these series in my mind so that I can read the next installment a year or more later, and also don't have the free time to take a week and just plow through all the previous books as a refresher (how much time did I lose to rereading all the Robert Jordan books all those years ago....?).

That having been said, I did not do a bad job at recalling what had gone before here. Still a fair bit of "Wait, who was that character again?" but overall I was able to follow the plot and know what was going on relatively well. Still a puzzle/mystery to figure out what was going on in this book, but also got some good backstory to help fill in some of the bigger picture stuff.

I definitely have "re-read all three books" on my early 2023 list, which will help in really wrapping my head around the plot and what's going on.

Ok, confession time. I have given all the books in this series 5 stars without entirely being sure what is going on. I see this as a selling point, not a detraction.
Things become a little clearer in this book. A little.
At first it just seems a simple coming of age tale set in a dystopian city. However, the child concerned is a revenant of someone of great importance from the previous books (it's honestly not who you would think) and despite being adolescent has only actually been around for 6 months.
There is a fair bit of backstory reveal. It all started on Earth, slowly dying in the climate apocalypse and that sets the tone for all that comes after.
The prose is delivered in a style that always (to me) brings to mind REM lyrics, where the intent sometimes is to make meaning appear from random, unconnected snippets. This pulls you in hard as you try to figure out what is going on and the effort feels entirely worth it.
Apparently there is to be a fourth installment to wrap things up. The author is clear this is a case of the story running away from her. No complaints from me as I look forward to seeing the resolution of this.
Highly recommended if you are either invested in the series or prepared to start at the beginning. You can't just pick this one up and dive in.