This book was one of those "very good at what it does and kinda not for me" books that I could appreciate even as I kinda wished it was a bit happier and less horrifically dystopic.

I loved what Hurley did with religion/culture/ideology, not just because I enjoyed playing "spot the peoples of the book!", but because the world she creates out of a fidelity to and break with Islam in particular, but Judaism and Christianity to a lesser degree is brilliant and visible.

Her writings of the callousness, devastation, repercussions and psychological effects of a long, ongoing war are also very well done. Part of what I like about this is that everyone kinda comes out looking awful, which is usually the case in ongoing battles that no one really knows why we're fighting them, and I never get the impression that one side is morally superior for the way they approach religion.

Which is also to say everyone's terrible and I like my books with a bit more optimism.

One final thing that I just want to mention because I was surprised both at its presence and its comparative absence anywhere else: the devout characters are portrayed as neither fundamentally god-touched and divine or absurd for their beliefs. Prayer, in particular, is treated as the human reaching out for the divine in a way that provides a sense of stability, emotional security and--given that this character's faith developed out of Islam--submission.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did because it did everything right. It just goes to show how much individual tastes and content predilections matter.