For each stop on the Masquerade blog tour, Laura Lam explains a different chapter introduction.

Neonatal death. Low temperature. Jaundice. Atypical anatomy: tail, caul, ichthyosis. Cause of death: unknown.

— Unsigned medical notes, Royal Snakewood University

Every chapter in the Micah Grey series has a short found document at the start, ranging from a variety of sources: history books, diaries, songs, poetry, and more. It’s basically a sneaky way to add in more worldbuilding and detail about Ellada & the Archipelago.

As in Pantomime and Shadowplay, performance is still a mainstay of the world, but Micah has more dealings with doctors. The operating theatre can be a different sort of stage. For reasons detailed in Pantomime, Micah is very wary of doctors and what they might want with him. There are few ways for Micah to avoid a certain doctor in this book, and he’s worried about secret, hidden motives. Hard to say much more without spoilers!

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If you buy Pantomime or Masquerade and send your receipt to Laura, you can claim a free 10k short story, “The Mechanical Minotaur,” set in the same world. If you buy all three, you can claim 60k of free fiction as well. More details here.