spoilers ahead yada yada yada 
 ok, i'm not gonna lie, this was really hard to get through after reading the director's cut of evenfall. because i guarantee you that every single bit of those 300 pages that were cut from evenfall were of boyd fucking whining. i wavered between giving this 2 and 3 stars but ultimately went with 3 bc no matter how much i struggled with this for two weeks - taking frequent breaks to read all the fanfic and all the side stories and spoil the shit out of myself - hsin is still my precious child so i did enjoy some parts. 
 but i felt like this book was 75% boyd and 25% hsin and that is the exact opposite of what i'm here for tbh. i guess it makes sense since the 'action' part of the plot is mostly boyd's level 10 training but that was a plotline i was wholly uninterested in. also there was still very little action there and a lot of boyd just wallowing in self pity for what felt like 50 pages at a time. i would have much rather read more about hsin and his mental illness and his therapy [which i'm kind of still worried about how they're going to continue to handle that entire plotline but i'm waiting to see]. i would have loved to actually read about his mission in the bowery as well. i was like finally we are getting some hsin action in this book and then they just skipped over the entire thing. 
 there were a few good parts - namely anything with hsin's backstory coming out in therapy and also in the hong kong mission. also, EMILIO!!!! i absolutely loved the last chapter and hsin's conversation with emilio. like this is literally all i've been waiting for for two entire books. anyway, i have been told by people who have read the entire series that afterimage is pretty much the low point of the series and i can't wait to move onto interludes bc i need more hsin and emilio interactions and also emilio/zach stuff <3