I’ll start with what might be my favorite quote ever: 

“Why raise children on the promise of magic? Why create a want in them that can never be satisfied—for revelation, for transformation—and then set them adrift in a bleak, pragmatic world?” Page 219

I cannot even find the words to describe how this quote makes me feel. It’s the knowledge that you were raised on all these fairytales, of giant castles and fairy godmothers, only for that wonder to be easily stripped from you. For that quiet hope that there is something magical, and that kind of thing is what we see happen in Darlington!! We see his wonder and amazement at magic being almost completely stripped from him after his experience in hell. Also, “Daniel in the lion’s den”?? Making Darlington the prince on their second use of the gauntlet—and then his demon, his torturer, being a demon prince? Leigh Bardugo you are an absolute genius.


ALSO DARLINGTON DEMOM GUARD DOG?? CRAZY.

Update 1/26/23
I hope I don’t wake up until the next one is released.

Update 12/8/23
There were several chapters that dragged (every single flashback) and for that, I removed .25, but like at its core (in my heart) it's a five-star book