I really enjoyed returning to this world and diving deeper into it. I really loved learning more about the magic and the politics of this world and I like how the characters got more development and it was easier to read than the first installment

This book was just okay. It had weird grooming just thrown in there, a professor married a student of his so that was a huge ick and red flag from the get go. It was disturbing and misogynistic from that point forward, so it was not a good book to me. Authors can write stories without adding in those gross actions

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

The Violence of Sound plunges deeper into the world of The Invisible College. We are returned to the story of inventor and professor Robinson Hawksley; his once student and now wife, McKenna; and a new point of view from General Colsterworth. These characters create the frame of how we see their world, learn about its magic, machinations, and political schemes. The world, at times, is reminiscent of our world in Victorian to pre-WW I era with a dystopian veil thrown across it. This sets the perfect stage as our plot thickens, we learn more about the magic, and the enemy, and yet, we are left feeling that there is still so much more to learn. The story also makes a few nods to history and fiction of the past. The author even references Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel, in the author's note. I also picked up on a wink to the E.T.A. Hoffmann story of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" which may be more familiar to many as its ballet adaptation "The Nutcracker". I find it interesting when a writer is able to weave in historic and literary references into their work while still telling a wholly original story. I found this book to be a solid follow up to The Invisible College but the cliffhanger of an ending left me needing to know where this story goes as I eagerly await the next volume in the series.
I received access to this eARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, 47North) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.