Really gripping book that made me want to immediately finish it. I liked the main characters, interesting world (although a little sense of that, one culture is so perfect and everyone is constantly looking down on the other culture to the point that the one MC degrades himself constantly by referencing his country of origin. very weird.) Biggest issues for me were pacing (how does this all occur over the span of like, 2-3 weeks??? out of control) and length (ideally it would have been 100 or so pages shorter. the branding incident in particular I would have cut).