Haha, I also read it while ill and got very confused! It definitely contributed to some fever dreams too.

This is a good and fair review. I'd be tempted to score children of ruin slightly lower, but I still think it is a good book. Having read them a while ago, Time has really stuck in my mind and Ive recommended it to several people. Ruin, on the other hand, has not (which your review has helpfully recapped for me!).

That being said, I'd add another reason to still read children of ruin. Children of Memory (the third book) is excellent and more on par with the first book. Ruin gives some insight into it, but is not strictly speaking necessary to understand Memory. But I'd certainly stick with them to read the whole trilogy. Memory also departs a bit from the structure of the first two books, which are both quite similar. It provides a nice refreshing take on the overall theme of the series.