content warnings:

Spoiler

precanon parent death, death of a child, grief, suicide bombings, xenophobia, animal abuse, mention of suicide by poison

rep:

Spoiler

Asian-coded setting & cast, children raised as "genderfree", questioning/nonbinary Japanese-coded MC [Akeha], nonbinary LI [Yongcheow], Japanese-coded antagonist [the Protector], Desi-coded secondary character [Thennjay], biracial minor character [Eien]

★ 2.5 stars ★

The worldbuilding is wonderfully atmospheric, thoroughly Asian-coded, and I really enjoyed that about it. But I kind of wish there was more explanation/structure given to the magic system in particular, because its presentation felt a little hand-wave-y despite its importance to the narrative.

I think the biggest problem is that the narrative structure just didn't work for me — the frequent timeskips/snapshots of the twins' life, from before their birth to adulthood; it ended being more plot-focused than I generally prefer. And considering all the buildup, I found the ending to be a bit of a letdown, the closing lines fairly cheesy.

There is a significant amount of thoughtful character development (including explorations of gender identity and sexual/romantic orientation), but again that felt secondary to the storyline. That said, it's hard to not root for complex characters who are Doing Their Best.

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CONVERSION: 6.9 / 15 = 2.5 stars

Prose: 5 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 4 / 10
Emotional Impact: 3 / 10
Development / Flow: 3 / 10
Setting: 7 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: N/A
Originality / Trope Execution: N/A
Rereadability: 2 / 5
Memorability: N/A