A fun read, and quick, entertaining. The book suffers from being paced like an action movie with one too many chase scenes. Oh no! The automata lion is chasing Jess in the park / the hallway / the ruin. Will he manage to

press the button in time

to save himself? There's a lot of that and not as much thoughtful world building and character development as the first book. It calms down a bit about two thirds of the way through though and finally lands somewhere interesting. I'm optimistic for the third.

I do want to call out one nice and subtle thing in the book though, Jess' relationship with his father. The theme from the first book of his father not being there for him as a support (emotional, physical, etc) is further explored here and very effective. Jess also doesn't really seek out a father figure elsewhere, say Wolfe from the library. It's an interesting theme and I think the author has done something unusual in this characterization. I like it.