Snyder certainly is doing a better job at conforming with the time setting in the novel by masking modern inventions with more primitive solutions. One of Esau's inventions (spinning flower blades) can easily be recognized as the modern fan. However, many of the items (particularly when it comes to Valek) still leaves me unconvinced that such an item could exist in the novel's setting.

Snyder still also focuses on sexual intercourse to hide the plot of the story. Yelena has intercourse with Valek every single time they see each other. It should be quite obvious to the readers that the two are really in love and miss each other; further sexual intercourse is not needed to emphasize their love. Countless, unmentioned victims are also raped during a crime spree. Snyder uses such incidents with such frequency that one cannot help but feel that she's using these to hide the fact that there really is not plot.

Magic Study has been a major disappointment for me. Now knowing magic, Yelena solves everything with magic, and that just leaves no real suspense for readers if we know that the problem will be solved with magic. All it takes is for Yelena to go into the mind of her attacker, control him, and Voila! no more attacker. The fact that she's the only one with this ability in the novel is also more annoying. Yelena isn't the "strange, outcast" here; her magic is called "taking the easy way to solving problems".