Well, I FINALLY finished this book six months after I started it, and I don’t know how to feel.

I simply do not care about Séverin. I care about Laila, but she’s also a very overpowered character, and I don’t think that what this book did with that fact was very interesting.

Didn’t hate the ending the way it seems like a lot of people have. It made sense. I just DO NOT CARE about Séverin and there is far too much of him in this book.

The other characters are the reason why I finished this book and the reason why I enjoyed it overall. Zofia is an absolute delight of a character who deserves the world, and I loved the development she got in this book. Hypnos grew on me A LOT from book one to this one, and his growth was satisfying as well.

But Enrique is the true star here. He’s one of my favorite fictional characters and has been since The Gilded Wolves. This funky little anti-colonial historian is truly so important to me. He’s also maybe the most well-written bisexual man I’ve encountered in fiction simply because of how his attraction to/relationships with both Hypnos and Zofia play out. Enrique Mercado-Lopez should be the blueprint for writing bisexuality, and he is complex and nuanced  beyond just diversity or any other single aspect of the character.

I might edit this when I’m feeling more coherent, or I might not.

Overall, I’m glad I finally finished it, but my feelings are definitely a bit mixed.

Excited to read Roshani Chokshi’s upcoming adult novel because I think that this novel (and the whole trilogy honestly) suffered from the constraints of YA. And the characters being as young as they are simply makes no sense.