I didn't like this as much as I'd hoped, and I've been chewing over why, and I think what I've come up with is that it's TOO ambitious? I've loved similar books like [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941l/6101718._SY75_.jpg|6278977], [b:Carry On|32768522|Carry On (Simon Snow, #1)|Rainbow Rowell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481729252l/32768522._SX50_.jpg|43346673], etc, and I think what works for this kind of book--that's clearly looking to respond in a fanfiction-like way to existing properties, to say, "Yes, these plucky teens saved the world, but at what cost? Let's really dig into their trauma!" But those books function by making their canon so similar to Narnia/Harry Potter/etc that they work as an effective shorthand. Here, whatever it was that her Chosen Ones went through...I mean, there are familiar tropes here and there but overall it's original, it can't clearly be mapped onto a Voldemort or whatever. Which is fine, except that then to start 10 years later and be reacting to piecemeal bits of information...it's not quite so satisfying or comprehensible.

that said, I liked Sloane as a prickly, traumatized heroine, and I enjoyed the story well enough. I liked the diversity of her crew of chosen ones though some of her talk about microaggressions etc felt a bit clunky? (A bit, perhaps, like Roth is someone who has been taken to task about such things in previous books but still doesn't feel totally comfortable writing about them? ah well a nice effort).

This is her first "adult" book but it doesn't feel too different than her YA ones except that the characters are aged up (and eg talking about marriage). I feel like she could have made more of her "adult" status by making this longer and digging into all of the worldbuilding a bit more.

eh!