Verdict first: the cards are structurally strong — the skeleton's anti-default devices survived into the cards — but they are not draft-ready. One blocking gap (the reciprocal halves of the assignment ladder are unwritten exactly where the book turns) plus five high findings, mostly concentrated in Act I shape repetition, midpoint forcing logic, the joint-piece provenance, and coda load distribution.

```text
VERDICT: REVISE BEFORE DRAFTING

FINDINGS

1. blocking — The reciprocal halves of Weeks 5–6 are unwritten where the book turns
   evidence: Ch 12/13 design only Theo's gift ("Theo chooses which memory to give June";
   "June receives Theo's childhood drawing memory"). No card anywhere says what memory
   June gives Theo or what his Week 5 canvas shows. Ch 16's conflict line — "Theo paints
   the wrong fear first; the real fear is not June leaving but being used/useful forever"
   — conflates whose fear is whose: the assignment is paint your PARTNER's fear, so
   "being used forever" (Theo's wound) can't be on Theo's canvas of June. June's named
   fear appears nowhere in the deck; June's painting of Theo's fear is unmentioned.
   why it matters: Ch 13 and 16 are dual-draft, high-leverage chapters. Both lanes will
   invent four load-bearing canvases on the fly, and June's fear is the book's thesis
   material (wanting/being seen). The same-night rupture leans directly on Week 6 content.
   revision order: on Ch 12/13, specify the memory June gives (recommend a guarded,
   deflecting one — its guardedness is scene content) and Theo's canvas of it. On Ch 16,
   specify all four objects: June's named fear; Theo's wrong-first canvas; his truer
   second; June's canvas of his fear — and which of these Odile and the class see.
   acceptance test: a cold reader of cards 12–17 can list every Week 5–6 canvas, whose
   fear/memory it depicts, and who saw it.

2. high — The midpoint cover kiss has no forcing function because exposure jeopardy goes
   dormant after Ch 06
   evidence: Ch 13: "public cover requires a kiss that stops feeling like cover" — but
   nothing on the card supplies the requirement. The last near-exposure beat is Ch 06
   (late Oct); Ch 10–12 contain no discovery threat at all.
   why it matters: a "cover" kiss with no live threat to cover against drafts as
   self-generated, i.e., just a kiss. The premise's structural irony (neither performs
   the performance) requires that the performance be demanded.
   revision order: revive jeopardy once in Ch 10–12 (e.g., Mara's "the real version"
   follow-up, an anniversary/how-long question with the cohort comparing notes), then
   name on the Ch 13 card exactly who or what forces the kiss, traceable to that beat.
   acceptance test: Ch 13 card states the kiss's forcing mechanism and it pays off a
   threat planted on an earlier card.

3. high — Act I Theo chapters are one scene shape three times, and Ch 03–08 is the
   class/aftermath metronome the rationale claims to reject
   evidence: Ch 04 "host the first diner commons without a cover-story collapse,"
   Ch 06 "get through a cohort/gallery walk without more lies," Ch 08 "make the
   post-memory outing feel normal" — identical engine (survive cohort warmth without
   exposure), each with a Ruth-watch beat, each closing on Theo's guilt/fear.
   why it matters: act sag by repetition; readers will clock the rhythm by Week 3, and
   Ruth's watching depreciates with each repeat.
   revision order: make one chapter Theo-active rather than Theo-defensive — rebuild
   Ch 08 around the keep-or-destroy sketch decision as spine (diner as backdrop, not
   container); cut the Ruth-watch beat from one of 04/06/08 so she observes at most
   twice in Act I; differentiate the three goals so their one-line summaries don't swap.
   acceptance test: engine summaries of 04/06/08 are not interchangeable; Ruth
   observation count in Act I ≤ 2.

4. high — `After Class` has no origination beat
   evidence: skeleton fixes the concept (room-as-left / room-kept-ready), but Ch 18 has
   June "painting toward the joint piece alone" before the canvas exists, Ch 19 has Theo
   beginning it without her, Ch 25 finishes it. No card says when the subject (the
   studio room) was agreed or how two estranged people painted complementary views of
   the same room without coordinating.
   why it matters: this is the coda's load-bearing artifact and the reading guide
   requires it to carry the ending without a speech. Provenance improvised across four
   chapters will contradict itself or get explained in dialogue — wall-label sentiment.
   revision order: assign origination deliberately — recommend Ch 13: they agree on the
   room as subject the night of the announcement, pre-rupture, so the opposite premises
   (leaving vs. kept-ready) arise organically from their separated states. Add one
   tracking line to Ch 13, 18, 19, 25.
   acceptance test: cards trace subject-agreement → separate underpaintings → visible
   double finish with no invented connective tissue needed at draft time.

5. high — Coda misweighted: Ch 27 overloaded, Ch 25–26 underloaded, cohort arcs missing
   their middles
   evidence: Ch 27 must land all three cohort arcs + artifact disclosure + Ruth's line +
   portrait suspense (card admits "many payoffs"). Mara/Luis ("Luis makes one direct
   statement") and Priya/Ben ("choosing a slower version") have zero card beats between
   introduction (04/06) and showcase. Meanwhile Ch 26 is admin ("avoid admin drag") and
   Ch 25 resolves Theo's entire vocational arc in a clause ("Theo alters his
   gallery/archive future with Odile").
   why it matters: three arc payoffs compressed into ~2,900 words become summary, the
   exact over-explained-sentiment failure the showcase label was designed to avoid; and
   Theo extracting his life from Odile's is premise-level — it needs a scene, not a clause.
   revision order: seed one mid-arc beat each for Mara/Luis and Priya/Ben in existing
   multi-character chapters (11, 13, 19 have room); resolve Priya/Ben before the
   showcase; promote the Theo–Odile archive conversation to a full scene unit in Ch 25
   with its own information ledger (Ch 21 style).
   acceptance test: Ch 27 card lists at most two payoffs it alone must land; the
   Theo–Odile future conversation has a scene unit with outcome rules.

6. high — Odile-consistency audit flags missing from the scenes Odile runs
   evidence: the reread test is binding ("every Odile scene must be consistent with her
   knowing"), yet Ch 03, 05, 07, 13, 19, 27 — all chapters Odile conducts — lack
   flag:mentor-scene (only 10, 16, 21, 28 carry it). Ch 16 stages two fear canvases but
   lacks flag:figuration-heavy (its analogues 07 and 13 have it). Ch 14, the single
   sanctioned catalog handoff that arms Turn 3, is not flagged high-leverage.
   why it matters: the audit machinery will skip exactly the chapters where Odile's
   knowing must be invisible-but-true. Plant integrity is the book's reread contract.
   revision order: add flag:mentor-scene to 03, 05, 07, 13, 19, 27; flag:figuration-heavy
   to 16; flag:high-leverage-scene to 14.
   acceptance test: every card whose scene contains Odile carries the mentor-scene flag.

7. medium — Ch 11's revelation is a thesis sentence that exists verbatim in the voice deck
   evidence: Ch 11 revelation: "privacy and cover are not the same thing." Ruth's voice
   card example line: "Privacy is not the same as cover." June's goal ("stay outside
   other people's definitions") is passive witnessing.
   why it matters: if Ruth speaks the line in Ch 11, the book's theme is captioned
   mid-book; with a passive June, the chapter has nothing else.
   revision order: ban the abstract formulation in Ch 11; the distinction must emerge
   from the specific content of Ruth/Sam's argument; give June a physical task with
   stakes during the errand.
   acceptance test: Ch 11 card carries an explicit dialogue prohibition on the thesis
   sentence plus an active June goal.

8. medium — Four chapters close on the same withheld decision; Ch 09 and Ch 15 are flattest
   evidence: Ch 09 "trusts neither," Ch 15 "June does not decide," Ch 18 "does not
   decide yet," Ch 20 "accepts care without conclusion." Ch 15's only conflict is "good
   terms and self-knowledge" — no opponent in the room.
   why it matters: the slow-burn self-choice is right, but four identical non-decision
   closes read as stall; Ch 15 will draft as interior essay.
   revision order: give Ch 15 a clock — Nia present or on the phone with an
   answer-by date (she has a program to staff); close each of 09/15/18/20 on a distinct
   concrete act (pocketing Asha's number; asking Nia for the week; the returned scarf
   already does this for 18).
   acceptance test: no two of 09/15/18/20 end on a restated deferral.

9. medium — The fear canvases vanish after the rupture
   evidence: the same-night 16→17 rupture overwrites Week 6; no later card mentions the
   fear paintings again.
   why it matters: the "most dangerous Tuesday" produces the rawest artifacts in the
   book and they never recur — wasted pressure, and the Ch 24 asymmetry conversation is
   left to carry itself in dialogue when an object could do it.
   revision order: thread one Week 6 canvas into Ch 21 or 24 as object, not speech.
   acceptance test: at least one fear artifact reappears post-rupture with changed meaning.

10. medium — Felt-experience fields holding negations and aphorisms instead of states
    evidence: Ch 13 "breathless without breath-cliche" (an anti-tic instruction that
    points the drafter at banned imagery, not a feeling); Ch 06 "being watched kindly is
    still being watched" (theme statement); Ch 25 "quiet vindication" (vindication
    implies an adversary; the scene is two people finishing honestly).
    why it matters: the felt-experience line is the drafter's emotional target; a
    negation gives no target.
    revision order: rewrite all three as positive, experiencable states.
    acceptance test: every felt-experience field names a state a person can feel; no
    negations, no aphorisms.

11. medium — Untracked custody of Theo's portrait, Ch 23→27
    evidence: Ch 23 Theo brings it to the diner; Ch 24 never disposes of it; Ch 27 it is
    in the gallery back room "faced to the wall until June decides."
    why it matters: it's the consent object of the coda; drafting will improvise who
    moved it and whether June knows it's there.
    revision order: one line in Ch 24 or 26 establishing June's agreement that it
    travels to the showcase with her decision pending.
    acceptance test: every location transition of the portrait has a card line.

CARD-SPECIFIC PATCH LIST
- Ch 03, 05, 07, 13, 19, 27: add flag:mentor-scene.
- Ch 04: replace the diner placeholder — lock the real diner (and gallery) names now;
  "before draft" is now.
- Ch 04/06/08: differentiate engines per finding 3; cap Ruth-watch beats at two; rebuild
  Ch 08 around the keep-or-destroy sketch decision as spine.
- Ch 09: stage inside an on-the-clock install; Nia seed and Asha lead arrive as
  interruptions to physical work; close on a concrete act, not "trusts neither."
- Ch 10: add one line specifying Theo's canvas of June's hands (her hands painting —
  and what sitting for that costs her).
- Ch 11: ban the verbatim privacy/cover sentence; give June an active errand task; add a
  Priya/Ben or Mara/Luis mid-arc touch here or in Ch 13.
- Ch 12: name the memory June gives Theo and why she chose a guarded one.
- Ch 13: name the kiss's forcing mechanism (traceable to a planted threat); add the
  joint-piece subject agreement (the studio room) to announcement night; rewrite felt
  experience.
- Ch 14: add flag:high-leverage-scene.
- Ch 15: put Nia and an answer-by deadline in the chapter; close on a micro-commitment.
- Ch 16: add flag:figuration-heavy; disambiguate the four canvases; name June's fear;
  specify what Odile and the class see.
- Ch 17: locate the confrontation — where Theo is when she "leaves him," same night.
- Ch 18: specify materially what "paints toward the joint piece alone" means (studies of
  the agreed room on her own supports).
- Ch 19: specify what Theo begins on the shared canvas given the agreed subject; land
  Luis's one direct statement here (the friction beat has room for it).
- Ch 21 or 24: reintroduce one fear canvas as object.
- Ch 24/26: portrait custody line.
- Ch 25: give the Theo–Odile archive-future talk its own scene unit with an information
  ledger; add outcome rule: no character names the two-panel metaphor aloud.
- Ch 26: absorb one cohort payoff (Priya/Ben) so Ch 27 delaminates.
- Ch 27: cap its payoffs at two; add explicit outcome rule that Ruth's line cannot open
  a second rupture.

DO NOT BREAK
- The same-night fear→discovery rupture (16→17). It is the strongest anti-default device
  in the architecture; fixing finding 9 must not reopen a gap between them.
- Decline-before-confession order (Ch 22 before 23/24) and June's self-owned stay.
- The catalog handoff happening exactly once, in Ch 14, as Theo's own care move.
- Odile never verbally lying; the Ch 21 partial-truth ledger as written.
- The fixed minimal showcase label; artifact-borne class disclosure; class never learns
  the nephew identity.
- All seven reread plants and their current homes.
- Ch 23's suspended care move (Theo asking instead of knowing the order) — the best
  single beat in the back half; do not let the Ch 23 thinness fix decorate over it.
- POV alternation map including the single 17–18 June flex.
- Ch 13's existing overload mitigation (offer arrival as final beat, contents deferred
  to Ch 15).
- Ruth's misread staying professional impropriety, never psychic romance insight, with
  its Ruth/Sam cost intact.
```

The short version: nothing here requires re-architecting. Finding 1 is blocking only because Ch 13 and 16 are dual-draft chapters — divergent invented canvases there would be expensive to reconcile. Findings 2–6 are each one-to-three card-line fixes plus flag additions. Once those land, this passes to drafting.
