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So, book 2 of a YA fantasy horse series.

Warning: there is a cliffhanger ahead.

The fact that this leads directly into book 3 explains a few things, because on its own the plot is a mess. Even as the middle of a story there are problems here.

Ironically, this was published in 2019 and deals with a deadly plague. In general, the situation is well handled, especially at a YA level. Since this world is somewhere around late 19th to early 20th century in general technology, the general sense of what is going on is known, and it’s down to trying to find a cure, or, as it turns out, a good inoculation.

Of course, this isn’t something the main characters are directly involved in, though they get the chance to be involved in finding a crucial bit of knowledge. That’s dropped a bit suddenly, and comes in from outside the active plot. But, the answer is suggestive of what deeper things are going on, because there is a deeper plot going on underneath all the happenings of the book.

…And that’s really the source of the trouble. Things start unraveling near the end, and while there’s a lot of questions left, the end is also where we start getting the questions in the first place. There were dropped threads near the beginning, and then there’s a lot of motion that goes nowhere until we head into the end. Put together directly with the next book, this may work out well, but inside of this book, the pacing is too uneven, and important things are set aside too long. That said, the writing and characters are enjoyable, and everything is set up well for what should be a very good concluding book.