This review's just gonna be a collection of paragraphs, as I don't know how to link them together into one coherent "essay". Sorry.

-This book deconstructs the Stella flock's reliance on something as inconsistent as "flotsam washing up on the beach" for resources. The ocean does not give Dahlia a working record player; 74 perfectly good bits of wood, rope, and tin cans; or shiny new accessories for her costume. Instead, she only gets rusty screws and knicker elastics to work with for her machines, and she lacks a lot of the tools she needs, because her only access to materials and equipment is, again, whatever decided to wash up on shore that week. This is one of the main problems Dahlia faces in this book, and the driving force of a few decisions she makes, some rasher than others.

-If you've read the stuff I've written on this website, you may be aware of my interest in Willow and Dahlia's dynamic in the books. Unfortunately, I will now speak negatively of it, because there's a reason I say that these two characters "could have" an interesting dynamic instead of "have".
In order to achieve the "Superstition VS Science" thing between the two, the writers decide to flanderize Willow. Sure, she is most certainly a hippie, but it's just one small trait of many that makes up Willow. In this book, however, every goddamn sentence that comes out of her mouth is plagued with white girl bullshit! It's even become a bigger part of her than her love of nature! In Willow's diary, the mere sound of a few trees getting cut down is enough to reduce Willow to tears, and she's constantly cursing herself for not doing more. In here, Gale's about to do more than cut down a few trees, she's planning Ecological Destruction of Incalculatable Proportions! So how does Willow take the news? Does she freak the fuck out? No, when the flock's coming up with a plan, she just suggests they all start navel-gazing for a bit. Some activist you are!
And even after all this, the "Dahlia VS Willow" dynamic is barely even a thing! Dahlia has just as much beef with Willow as she does with all her other friends, who are all equally clueless about her passion and interests! They've tainted a perfectly good character for nothing!

-A more comedic sidenote, at some point Dahlia tests out a sleeping potion on Poppy, and she later describes her as being "zonked out in the corner". I found this line more amusingly than intended. For one thing, I didn't even know "Zonked" was an actual word in the actual dictionary! I thought it was just a Jerma thing!

-As mentioned above, one of Dahlia's problems is the lack of proper equipment, causing her inventions to always malfunction some way or another. However, her inventions also suffer another problem, one I thought would be addressed in some way, because I kinda forgot I was reading something intended for children. You see, each and every one of her failures have one thing in common: they were attempting to do way too many things at once. Why the hell would a drawer sorting machine also need to dispense gravy at the same time? Pretty good way of filling your bedroom with sauce, and that's exactly what happens the moment she unveils it! Maybe your Clean Plate Potluck Autochef would be a bit better at being an Autochef if you spent more time and resources on the cooking parts instead of trying to make it knit!

I get that overly complex futuristic machines that do a hundred things at once is typical kiddie stuff, and I'm a moron for expecting more, but......you know what, I really don't have a defense, I AM taking kiddie stuff way too seriously.

However, if you want to create something truly great, you're gonna have to find a specific niche for this "something", and stick to it. Take a look at roombas, not exactly the most "futuristic" of robots, they don't offer you tea, or babysit your child, they just sweep. Their only purpose is to clean your floors, nothing else. Yet, they're pretty damn popular, precisely because they were designed with only sweeping in mind, and as a result are better at their intended job, and have less components that can break down.
When people crave chocolate, they don't buy neapolitan ice cream, they buy double-choc. Trying to satisfy a hundred different demographics at once will result in a lesser product that appeals to none. I feel like that's also a good message to tell any young aspiring creator.
(I mean, people still buy neapolitan ice cream, so my analogy's a little faulty, but you get what I'm trying to say.)

That's all I have for this review.