Yeah, I think I agree with a lot of this. It was a gutsy choice to go for a completely different narrator and setting, and I admire Jemisin for that, but…I like court intrigue. And there is a very fractured feel to the narrative (which given the title of the book could be intentional, which would be meta in a cool way but is not quite obvious enough to not be frustrating when reading), what with lots of different things going on at once, and coming off the first book I was more interested in the characters from the last book who played only supporting roles in this one. And I sort of was annoyed at the romance tropes in Oree's relationships with Itempas and the godling (disclaimer: I don't care much for romance novels).

I mean, I devoured it in about two sittings, but I didn't like it as much as the first one. I'm looking forward to the third book, though!

ETA: I didn't think the superpower to compensate trope was actually as disappointing as the "I can see magic!" stuff pre-superpower, which sort of…yeah, I don't know, is sort of suspiciously convenient for the narrative.