Struggled to get through this. The third act is better than the first three quarters of the book. Starts slow with a lot unnecessary over-detailed descriptions. I don't need to know the dimensions of a classroom. I know how big they are. I'm not a fan of overly specific numbers or distances, or actions explaining where everything is, with the left hand doing this and the right hand doing that, and the left foot here and the right there. Just say they got into a scuffle and move on. I don't need notes from the fight choreographer. But that seems par for the course for the (limited) science fiction I've read (which is mostly bad writing). This book was based on the author's short story and it perhaps should have remained as one.
But I really like the ending.