I feel like this is not the first book I've read that begins in school and is reasonably balanced between high stakes and fun and then the second half hits and it's...not anymore.
And the tonal shift throws me to the point that I read the second half grumpily wondering where the first half went.
I have a feeling this is just a stylistic choice that happens not to work for me. I get why it happens and the thematic shift encapsulated by the tonal shift (and the argument its making about the world in which warriors train versus the one in which they live) but also I get to be grumpy.
First part of the book was amazing. Second part was compelling, but I wasn't hooked in the same way. Almost definitely going to keep reading it, though.