Book 2 once again leaves me gut wrenched, questioning motives and morality and politics and the world. How does she continue to do this? Wow. 

This one started slow. A lot of political maneuvering, war setup and planning, and finding allies. Kang always does a great job of setting context and really getting you to understand the complexities of what is going on. 

Rin, well. I was really damn frustrated with her for basically all of this book. I’m sick of her pretending to be a pawn, floating along with others decisions, and not using her own damn brain - especially as she is supposed to be one of the best in the country and went to school for this. Everyone is treating her like this super powerful weapon who is under their control and she’s treating herself like she deserves to be tossed in the ocean. It drove me insane and I wanted her to just buck up and take some control already. 

Overall, this was a less action packed book and very politics and ethics heavy. And the ending still tore me to pieces and broke my heart. This series really has no trouble diving into deep thought provoking topics under the guise of fantasy and it deserves to be talked about while reading it. It would have been so difficult to fully process and appreciate this book without chatting theories and outcomes