This is what I really wanted from this series: a solid 7/10 story. It has a plot and active characters, which is more than I can say for some of the other books so far. Also, werewolves! What more could you ask for?

Sure, it's not the be-all end-all of books, it's not the best thing every written, it's got issues and plot holes and characters that get cut out of the story unceremoniously, but it's fun. It's simple. After the boring drag of War of the Daleks and the frustrating slog that was Alien Bodies, I desperately needed something that was just light and fun, and this delivered in full.

All the characters in this book have agency, something that is conspicuously lacking in most other novels in this series so far. Sam, especially, finally gets to come into her own. It's amazing that we're seven books in and I still barely feel like I know her, but I feel like I know her a bit better now.

There are a lot of little details that I feel elevate the story if you're paying attention, such as the moon motifs and the Jax causing infected people's eyes to turn green (I really liked the line describing Gray's eyes to be "just as grey as the rest of him", which is probably the only reason I even noticed they had changed colour).

This book does something similar to The Bodysnatchers, where around halfway through the novel you feel like it's starting to wrap up. But unlike The Bodysnatchers, Kursaal actually has more of a story to tell, with things that were set up in the first part. It feels like it could have been a sequel rather than the same book, and I do think that isn't ideal, but it fills the necessary 280 page count without dragging, which is all I could ask for.

I really don't understand why this book is so widely hated. I enjoyed it.