Yessss I super got that vibe (and I think that kind of deconstruction is hilarious, so I loved this book) and I additionally got the vibe that she was also deconstructing Dystopia YA, which usually comes with a het love triangle, so that was sort of Orion's function in the book, only she couldn't really decide whether she wanted him to actually be a love interest or just make fun of the whole love interest thing, so it came across as weirdly wishy-washy. I loved it but only from my glasses of "this is making fun of het YA," which I'm sure will be shattered in the next book because that's how Novik rolls.:)

...also, it also weirded me out that it was so clearly H/D serial-numbers-filed-off but then why just change only one of them into a girl??