This is a weird one for me because on one hand, I can totally understand the world building and the author's desire to use real world events to shape the fabric of this fantasy world and process cultural trauma.

On the other hand, the novel takes a complete left turn half way through and left me stranded on the side of the road to watch the story keep going without me.

Weird character choices were made, and it's like all the characterization and build up from the first half didn't matter anymore. Nezha and Rin are suddenly good friends after 2 pages of apologies? Rin is super committed to Altan to the point where she's following in his obviously deranged plans without question? We're supposed to believe the Cike are Rin's new found family, even though it never, ever feels like she is close to them, they're just sort of all there?

Not to mention how tough a pill it was to swallow the very last parts of the book. I can appreciate how great it is to have a main character make terrible decisions, and how Rin eventually got there. I can. But it didn't feel earned, in the end.