“Because you can’t get your head out of your ass long enough to realize that you’ve gotten complacent. Comfortable. The fact of the matter is, you don’t want to upset the status quo because it might change your place in the world. You’ve become exactly the type of hero we said we’d never be.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This was such a relevant book, but keep in mind the trigger warnings of police and politician corruption and abuse of power - murder, frame-ups, scapegoats. It was a unique telling of police brutality, and I thought it was portrayed very nicely.

“You did this to yourself. This was your choice. Actions have consequences, Sol.”

“Yeah, they do. But I guess Seelie don’t have to think about that, do they?”

It’s so easy to ignore your privilege sometimes and stories like this remind you of why it’s so important to listen, acknowledge, and change your behaviour, as Jericho eventually did. But they weren’t so kind in the beginning:

“He liked how things were. He liked the black and white of it all. He liked knowing who was good and who was evil by the scent of their magic. He liked being able to say that if a redcap committed a crime, they were likely to commit another, and they should be taken off the streets.”

This was my first book with a gender-fluid MC, so I can’t speak to the authenticity of their thoughts/reactions but I thought it was done quite well! There was also a trans main character, as well as many queer side characters, so it was well-rounded in representation which was nice to see.

So, if you like: