i feel very conflicted rating this book - i keep sliding it between the 3star and the 4star, and even then i wonder if those make sense.
i'm settling for a 3.5
i mean, it had everything to be a favourite of mine - rebellion against oppressive regime, queer F/F representation, political themes of feminism, segregation and immigration
there were many moments that had me gripped by the story, and i liked the world building (the gods introduction has me super intrigued - what does that mean??)
but there was something lacking in it. and i can't quite put my finger on it, but i will bet on one reason: i didn't know/remember that this was book one of a series. because of this the pacing seemed weirdly off to me, there were so many strings left untied and so many things happening towards the end of the book, leaving me wondering how the hell the author was gonna wrap it up. spoiler alert: she doesn't. which is probably what bothers me with this book - i don't believe it works as a stand alone, and as someone who thought it was a stand alone i was left trying to figure out what just had happened. and that was distressing and took me out of the final moments of the book a lot.
this being said i still want to read the next book in the series.