I wrote shortly after finishing The Kingdoms: “this made my brain feel like scrambled eggs, but I was still able to follow it,” and whilst that might not be clear, I meant that entirely positively. The Kingdoms is so intricately plotted, I’m absolutely desperate to see how Pulley did it (There has to be a spreadsheet, right?). Whilst not reading it, my thought continually wandered back to it, and I found myself racing through it, snatching chapters in every spare moment I could. The Kingdoms is imaginative, and consistently intriguing, and populated with very vivid characters, with extremely palpable emotions. In fact, palpable emotions seem to be one of Pulley’s unique strengths as a writer here: the protagonist’s emotions saturate her books, and here, that has the effect of grounding a very wild story that could easily lose its reader amongst the shifting tides– but doesn’t for even a moment. It’s always a strong sign when you put down a book excited at the prospect of rereading it, and I cannot wait to do so.