I think I've been too harsh on Orman in the past for having not particularly rigid plot structures. Or at least I thought this one worked well for the story.
I think this is the Orman book that made me the least frothing-at-the-mouth insane but, like, it's still her, so it's still gorgeously and thoughtfully written. Her style REALLY hits in this one. Multiple instances of me reading a sentence, being like "wow. i really liked that sentence" and then rereading it a couple times.

One thing shes really good at is giving exactly the amount of info needed at any given moment, and it makes certain emotional scenes feel so cinematic. She manages to pull off the prose equivalent of an actor reacting with just a meaningful expression, showing a lot going on under the surface without telling you the exact thought processes behind it. It's just gorgeous. There's a single line delivered by one of the main antagonists that explains absolutely everything you need to know about her without having to reveal much at all. Precision character writing.

The main body of the plot here is that a bunch of characters are now in the same place together for the first time and their conflicting and overlapping dynamics are making everyone feel insecure. There's also some other stuff about xenophobia and insecurity fueling the cold war, and that totally slaps as well. All of this is kind of a delivery vehicle for Kate Orman doing Her Thing, which is writing complicated, tragic people being put in bad positions by other complicated, tragic people doing what they believe they have to do. And BOY is she doing it here.

Another aspect of Kate Orman's subtlety as a writer is her ability to sneak in content I cannot imagine would have been allowed to fly if you didn't have to think about what you'd just read for a few minutes to figure what, precisely, just happened. see: certain implications about Bernice and a lesbian couple in SLEEPY. I would tell you what she was doing to that old man this time but... I'm not sure I feel comfortable discussing it in polite company. She's crazy for this one. keep up the good work, Kate.

I'm so happy with this as a resolution for the Chris/Roz situation as well. The romantic tension finally comes to a head and they decide that what they needed was to be friends after all. I really enjoy this alongside what we get here with the Doctor's unease and confusion about relationships and physical displays of affection. He's of course no stranger to physical affection and has (and has had) lots of intimate friendships, but romance feels alien to him, and he can't wrap his head around the rules and the patterns. I'm always happy to see treatments of friendship and romance that differ from the norm, and this book adds a lot, I think, to Benny and the Doctor's hard-to-pin-down relationship as well as the very Queer writing of the Doctor in this series.

There's an essay for another time.

Yes. I really enjoyed this one.