I was so excited for this book I didn't know what to do with myself. Because Melina Marchetta is amazing. And because Froi ended on such a terrible cliffhanger. And mostly because I love these characters and this world and I wanted to know what happened next.
One of the things I enjoyed about Quintana was the pacing. Nothing was drawn out for a chapter or two; characters didn't wander around trying to find out what was going on when the reader knew. There were revelations and the characters took action and the reader saw the results of that action quickly and that made it a lot of fun to read.
The plot actually surprised me and I like that it didn't go the way I expected it to go - just because predictability is no fun.
The characters, of course, are awesome. It was interesting to see some of their flaws come to the surface more. But it was also fun that there was a sense of the everyday-ness to them. Because they've been connected in these relationships for a while now so that comfortablity with each other and that familiarity with how they're connected created that sort of everyday sense even in the midst of the high drama.
This was a really good conclusion to the Lumatere trilogy.
ETA: Quintana is a hard book to read. It's easier the second time around when you know how it all ends. But it spends a lot of time with the characters far apart. Froi is running all over the place and also staying too long in places. I think that think that makes the second read hard is knowing what's going to happen and having to read through other things to get to it. Also, I don't like the first third because Isaboe and Finnikin aren't themselves. They're too reactionary; too dramatic without know exactly what they're doing. Isaboe especially is strategic. She's ruthless but always with a good cause, rather than acting on half baked information. And Finnikin's talks and listens and the second Froi shows up I can't imagine him doing anything other than turning to him and asking a hundred questions. But in the end, it all works out. Which makes it a little bit wonderful.
Also it's funny. Froi and Arjuro and Lirah and Gargarin are kind of hilarious whenever they're together. It's a very morbid, dry kind of humor but it makes me laugh every time.