Review: Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo

'You're not a god. You're a sadist,' she said.

'Is there a difference?'

This series is so special in that its fantastical worldbuilding is rooted almost entirely in reality. Bardugo anchors the reader in true observed oddities of New Haven and the campus of Yale University. You can't help but feel that childhood novelty of the possibility of magic thrumming through the unexplained world. A typo on a historic map. Strange symbols in stained glass. An unnecessary door.

While the worldbuilding solidifies this series as special, I must admit that the plot severely weakens after the first installment. It's not that it's ever bad, but it's no longer airtight. I still had a fun time, but I wasn't as enmeshed in the story as I was reading Ninth House, which to be fair, is hard to achieve.

I won't say much more as this is the finale of a trilogy and I don't want to spoil it while it's still hot off the presses. But I'll make one exception: Thank God Darlington finally put that glowing cock of his to some use. I'd say, "Sorry, mom," but we all know she would just laugh at that comment.