I have to be honest, I don't really understand all the hype around this book. I thought it was fine... The concept was really interesting and I love historical fantasy but for some reason it just fell a little flat for me. 

As I said, the concept and the magic system were so interesting and for me that was the strongest aspect of this. I loved the setting and the general atmosphere. 

I also really liked the way that R.F. Kuang used footnotes throughout to elaborate on things. It felt fitting for a book about academics and provided some really interesting additions. I thought that was very clever.

However, I didn't really connect with the characters that much so when big emotional things started happening I found that I didn't really care. The prose felt extremely modern at times which felt a bit out of place. 

I thought that the themes and messaging in this were really important and it was such an interesting way to explore them. However, I found the way that the themes were delivered to be a bit heavy-handed at times

Finally, I thought that when we reached what should have been the big climax it felt like what should have been a big exciting moment suddenly ground to a halt and there were a few chapters near the end that felt like such a drag which was disappointing. 

So yeah I feel mixed about this. It has so much potential for me to love it but just didn't quite connect the way I was hoping.