I went from being ambivalent about Book 1 and the first half of this book to completely and utterly invested. Two words: Terrible, rooftop. Chess is such a great character too -- complicated, messy, brilliant. I was having trouble with the dialogue or 'Downspeak' in Book 1 so Flannery recommended the audio version and the narrator is fantastic. I'd write more but I need to read the next book.