Almost five stars. This is an incredible novel, slightly hampered by the two themes pulling in opposite directions. On one hand, Declare wants to be an epic supernatural fantasy, and on the other, a very realistic and down-to-earth spy story. In the end the story has to make a choice, and as a result, the one not chosen suffers slightly.

But! Declare is still a triumph of imagination and storytelling, and a brilliant book that plays really fair with its strange ruleset. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys, for instance, the Laundry Files or The Milkweed Triptych.