I loved the world building and the protagonist Akeha, but struggled a little with the pacing of this novella. It felt very setup-heavy, and jumped quickly between key events in Akeha and Mokoya's childhood through adulthood. They both become involved in a rebellion against the ruling government headed by their cruel powerful mother, but despite being like all setup I didn't feel like I fully understood the circumstances and motivations of either the government or the rebellion, which may be my fault for being in a bit of a funk while I read the majority of this novella. Anyway, I'm still definitely excited to continue with the series and see how they expand off this intriguing foundation. ⁣
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I also really appreciated the exploration of gender. In their world all children are treated as gender neutral until declaring their gender for themselves, and there are gender-based first person pronouns (mirroring she/her/they third person pronouns in English.) But gender is still complex and fraught, and gender roles still exist in their world but function differently.