this was good - good but disappointing
(triggers at the end)

this was still very interesting and had me interested enough to keep reading, and i read huge chunks when i did pick it back up, but at a point in the middle i didn't feel the tug to keep reading. all the characters were seperated somehow and there wasn't enough character focus for me?

something i loved in the short story collections i've read in this series was the focus on inner character monolgue and turmoil, in a sense. we got to read what the characters were feeling, thinking, what their intner reactions were versus their actual outward reactions. there wasn't much of that in this book, a lot of exploration of the world, and getting to know characters but from a more outside perspective. i think i just really enjoy being in character's minds, and particularly, in geralt's brain. but instead, we were following lots of characters; like dandelion and yennefer was incredibly intersting, but besides that, it wasn't much.

something i truly enjoyed, or rather someone, was ciri. i loved her introduction in [b:Sword of Destiny|25318857|Sword of Destiny (The Witcher, #0.7)|Andrzej Sapkowski|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1449159346l/25318857._SY75_.jpg|1877799] and knew i would love her the more she developed as a character. [chef's kiss] incredible stuff, and i loved being in her head as she grappled with training and her own trauma.

trigger warning for
assault, violence, grief, gore, death (not mc)