The Radishes were super cute.

There were some minor gripes, mostly to do with the fact that I am probably outside the intended age range of this story, but I'm gonna talk about them anyways.

In the start where Payne insists on never telling anyone about Scarling was super annoying for me. Granted, if/when I was Rosa's age and I had done something like releasing a monster that could destroy the economy and had a grudge, I probably would have listened to the talking crow, but still. It just got more annoying after getting to know the family, because the family characters are written so lovingly, that I, the reader, know that they will not be angry, and in fact help Rosa, only if she'd tell them about it. Maybe it was intentionally written that way, and yes, she's 10 , so I ignored that for half of the book.

Another peeve is there were some things which were introduced, and which felt super interesting , but they never really went anywhere. For example, the big ceramic Illumination of the canal - The scene of it clearing the water probably was to show how powerful they can be, and maybe to set up for later that people working together can produce far stronger illuminations, but it still didn't feel enough. Given how long / important the scene was I felt it would play a major role - probably the Scarling would attack it and Rosa would stop it then, or maybe Scarling going to attack it will become the ticking clock for Rosa - but nothing like that happens. It is introduced, and then it keeps on working in the background till the end. It feels logical in-world, because charcoal would probably come right off the coated ceramic that is surrounded by water ; but still, it felt like it'd play a major role by the way it was introduced, and it absolutely does not.

Similar thing is with the forbidden illuminations. The redacted illuminations seemed to have really "cool" design, and the very fact of them being redacted made them really interesting, but they come up again exactly once after their initial mention, and that too as a generalized mention in a flashback. Knowing how well the Author can write dark/twisted fantasy, I hoped that they would play a bigger role, or at least their effects would be explained, but they didn't.

Also, I thought it would be explained such that Payne's illumination was so powerful, that even Tybalt couldn't come back to open the box, he'd be always turned away when he tried, and thus didn't come back, rather than he simply forgot. However, the way it concludes that people are complex, and final monologue of grief was also nice, so it works out, I guess.

Finally I have two big problems with the way final battle and the conclusion happens.

First of all - it is mentioned numerous times that to rub off the scribblings, Rosa uses a sponge or a cloth and water. HOWEVER - never once any of them tried throwing water at the scribblings in the final battle??? Did I miss reading any paragraph!? On top of that, the final attack is in the kitchen, while they were having coffee. Did no one seriously thought even once that hey - we are trying to fight these drawings-coming-to-life with spatulas, ladles and more drawings that come to life ; maybe let's try throwing water at them to see if they wash off form the air!

I had this thought first when they caught the scribbling at Serena's house in a jar - oh they might try to pour water to vanish it - but ohhh no, no one even considers this. And yes, maybe this would not lead to the way final climax happens, but I'd have much preferred to see someone throwing water and finding out that it just creates a muddy water-monster out of them, than seeing no one ever considers it.

And Second was how they handled dealing with the Scarling at the end - they put it again in a box and bury it. Why??? Considering the fact that Rosa had mentioned that she could understand how bored it must have been by being locked in a box for 200 years, which made its anger worse, I thought at end it would be properly taken care off. Maybe it falls in a water bucket and its paint washes off or something. Seeing them just put it back in a box and putting it underground for thousands of years just felt a little bit cruel. I would have even accepted the ending where they expect Payne to vanish - but surprise - it still lives ; than seeing it just being confined again in the box. I guess the "lesson" here was supposed to be that sometimes, things don't have a neat and clean ending, but eh, that still irked me.