A fine third act for a fantastic series, which manages to bring together the lands of the first two books . In a way, it's about the aftermath of any massive, terrible crime, like the Holocaust, or the wars in Yugoslavia. How do people cope with their responsibility for crimes they committed? How much truth is enough? Even when the people in question committed these crimes at the behest of a mind-controlling sadistic psychopath, do they bear responsibility for it? This is the sort of young adult book I enjoy: a book that is not afraid to make you think about big things, rather than just sparkly vampires.