The longer this book got, the less I liked it. It started off very strong, but I noticed pretty soon that the East and Tané were... Always kind of an afterthought. Tané and her relatively simple character arc existed only to propel the plot for Ead, who, in turn, seemed to stumble into things happening TO her, rather than necessarily being motivated to do them herself.

The prose was beautiful, except for moments when it was TOO flowery - namely, when the author seemed clearly uncomfortable depicting queer sex. It felt sanitized to me. I'm not sure if the author is WLW or not but I would bet she isn't. Not that straight authors shouldn't write queer stories; if they do - they just won't hit the same and that's fine.

The pacing was also off, especially the battle at the end, which ended things incredibly abruptly in a way that didn't seem as though the characters... Learned anything. It's the climax; they're supposed to connect the threads, apply all they'd learned and overcome, you know, Hero's Journey stuff. Not only did we skip the learning completely

(Ead and Tané "practiced with the gems" but what does that entail?)

, we also don't really get a satisfying conclusion. This book could have been more successful as a series than a standalone, I think. It skips all the "quiet" moments, where the characters bond, or even get to know each other, then expects us to care when they are killed or hurt. 

The only vehicle for the reader to learn the dense worldbuilding was, unfortunately, characters telling it to one another. There are better ways in fantasy to learn what's going on - and if there aren't, maybe there shouldn't have been that much history/historical context for us to discover. It grew tedious after the first time Ead talked to someone about her religion. 

Everything also felt... Easy. Even

Laya Yidage

makes it. 

Plus, it never feels like Niclays truly connects with his grief. 

The more I think about it, the more nitpicks I have. I'm going to stop here, I think.

I just had way loftier expectations, based on friends'  recommendations and reviews, I think.