I'm actually not really sure if I completely liked this book or not. There were definitely things I liked. I enjoyed the mystery portion, the very odd and different plot. I even enjoyed many/most of the characters. But there was something...off...about this that I can't quite pinpoint. 
 I did not enjoy the writing style. I've come to find that I'm not a fan of third person narrative unless it's close third. This is definitely not close third. I saw someone else call it omniscient? I don't like feeling removed from characters and their surroundings. I like to feel what the characters are feeling, live the story with them, not watch from a distance. I felt very removed from these characters. 
 Okay, and I have to ask: what is the deal with all the crazy names? Only Gansey (last name. First name Richard), Noah, Adam, and Maura had normal names. Everyone else's were crazy or hard to pronounce. Neeve, Barrington, Orla, BLUE? I mean, why? I'm with Gansey on the whole "Jane" thing. Don't get me wrong, I like different names as much as the next person, but it's a bit distracting when it's every other one. And personally, I'm not fond of Blue at all for a name. The others I was iffy about, but really disliked Blue. 
 As I said before, the characters--with the exception of a few--were great with amazing back stories. Ironically, the one I disliked most and who felt the least drawn out was Blue. Her prejudices against the boys--Gansey mostly--really turned me off to her character. Not because I was in love with Gansey or anything--I liked him just fine--but because she was constantly thinking about how rich he was. There was also a lot of talk about him being condescending and pretentious. I never saw any of that. He seemed perfectly nice to me, so this really made me dislike Blue. 
 I really liked Adam, but his stubborn pride really got on my nerves. His attitude toward his best friend was horrible. Not once did I ever get the impression that Gansey thought of Adam as a possession. All he seemed to want to do was help him out of a bad situation. I just couldn't understand why neither Blue or Adam could see past Gansey's money. It annoyed me. 
 As for Gansey himself, like I said, I liked him. He seemed sincere and full of life. Even though he narrated quite a bit, I still feel there's quite a mystery about him. This installment seemed to focus more on Adam than Gansey, so I'm hoping we get more into Gansey in the following installments. 
 The same can be said for Ronan. I actually forgot about him much of the time since he was only conveniently used at key points. I'm interested to learn more about him and his big "secret". 
 And Noah, well, I'm not going to say much about him other than I really enjoyed his part in all this. But that's all you're getting from me. ;) 
 That said, in my opinion, there were too many point of views happening. I honestly think we could have done without Barrington Whelk's. it really didn't add anything and I think it would have been more shocking/better to discover the things we did without being in his mind. And as much as I loved Adam, his situation could have been related just as well through either Blue or Gansey. The multitude of POVs made things a bit muddled and confusing at times. 
 Despite these things, I felt this book was quite interesting. I really appreciated the very different storyline and look forward to seeing where this goes.