I can't be the only one who feels that if you have an author character and then proceed to write her work into the book and then praise it ...that you are essentially praising your own work, right? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I dunno. It just rubs me as a big ego. 
 Also not much happening for a novel with two story lines running at the same time. The life of a writer never looked so dull. It's kinda discouraging. And the main character was supposed to be a teen but acted like an adult. 
 Wish I started with Westerfeld's other books. Heard good things but this was not the strongest first impression.