this very much had potential (and i can see why people would like it) but it just didn’t work for me :/
firstly, the romance just left me confused. Lucille and Oreste have the chemistry of close friends, not romantic partners. Lucille and Fifina have the energy of romantic partners, not specifically besties. but in the book this is reversed??? Lucille very much read (to me) as sapphic and i wanted that to be explored, but it never was (even though early on in the book she kisses Fifina).
the politics of this book were also confusing. i think this is just due to the format, being a novel-in-verse it focuses much more on things being poetic than having explanations of the politics (of course there are novels-in-verse out there that do explain politics well. this one just couldn’t).
i do like the setting, and i liked cousin Phebus and Fifina (unfortunately, i did not like Lucille. she did not have much of a personality).