I gotta admit that the last hundred pages or so of the book had me pretty intrigued & invested, but it was still a slog to get through this. I won’t argue that the research that must’ve gone into this wasnt extensive or that the business and politics and schemes aren’t meticulously crafted. That said, I took issue with the racism & misogyny present throughout the narrative—I understand this is meant to be very historical but I think authors still have a responsibility in how they choose to incorporate and portray this and I wouldn’t say that having an enslaved character and presenting little to no challenge towards that is excusable nor did I appreciate the icky way men’s sexual desires were presented as like a natural, immutable need to fuck lol.