Biasanya ini ga terlalu ketara tapi di buku ini jadi lumayan penting karena diceritakan kalo Jessica Lockwood meninggal dibunuh hantu dari Indonesia.

As the Chelsea hauntings continue to escalate, Lockwood, George and Lucy find their talents in more and more demand. Lockwood, Lucy and George investigate a series of disappearances with one mutual connection: they all rented a room in the Lavender Lodge.

lol) I'll leave you with one of Stroud's chapter ending sentences; that always pulls the reader onto the next page. P I’m sure this will change over time and until we get there I’ll just collect every little snippet I can get. Surely this is the perfect chance for them to show once and for all that they’re actually the best in town? Great action, characters, ghostly presences, and team dynamics are all part of this great adventure! She isn’t very pleasant, but they take the case because at the last minute the client mentions one of the Night Watch child guards fell to his death from the top of her four-story staircase.

The son of the wealthy owner at the time had gone crazy, stabbed a servant, and chased the injured boy up the stairs, from which he had fallen to his death. I loved the first Lockwood book but didn't enjoy book 2 quite as much so wasn't sure about continuing the series. But I can’t even complain about that just pointing it out, not complaining bc im so bloody invested in this series, I will die when it ends, plz I don’t deserve this kinda pain. When they go upstairs to examine the rooms where the missing men had stayed, the elderly couple slams the heavy iron door behind them, locking them in! Sadly, Stroud doesn't even consider this possibility, choosing instead to feebly develop Lucy's dumb crush on Lockwood instead.Also, I don't know why I never noticed this before, but Stroud is spinning some extended thoughts on government and bureaucracy underneath the story. It refers to the Fetch that appears and takes Anthony Lockwood's form to Lucy, but also to Lockwood himself and his hollow nature. Between the ages seven and nine he was often ill, so he spent most of his days in the hospital or in his bed at home.

At the end of the last book— The Whispering Skull—Lockwood finally relented and let her and George in. We already made his acquaintance in “The Whispering Skull” but we never learned his name until now and I gotta say I’m already very curious about him. Like I said, it's a cliffhanger - yuck - but it's also smart, and drastic, and it finally brings some of the stylistic aplomb seen in the Bartimaeus series to this new series.

i don't love the "lucy doesn't get along with other girls" vibes (holly seems like a lovely person, lucy, chill) but the ending still gives me all the feels. Ending the book with a twist and leaving us alone in our misery for months, until we get the sequel. But it's also easy to picture the story happening in some kind of steampunk universe, because the world Stroud has built is entirely devoid of pop culture for our fifteen-year-old heroes to reference. After all she’s done and how close she sometimes feels to Lockwood, it still seems Holly Munro is the shining star. All those three were really creepy and the Chelsea outbreak in particular immediately had my full attention.

I wasn’t sure about giving out five stars because I’m a little wary of the direction the story might take next, but well, the book itself is fantastic.

Lucy’s character is developed a lot more and although some of the mystery surrounding Lockwood himself dissipates, George, who is often treated off-handedly by Lockwood, is developing in this book too. I'd have to reread the Bartimaeus series to be sure, but I seem to remember him doing the same there.