This story started out very strong; excellent world-building, a down-trodden protagonist to root for, and an intriguing enemy. However, after the first 3rd of the book and the introduction of a few more characters, the writing seemed to become weaker. 

 

I enjoyed the story through Deka’s 1st person view, but many parts of the book were skimmed over and it felt like, because of that, we missed a lot of key character development; these characters were all of a sudden more mature or good friends. This also made the relationship between Deka and the love interest seem rushed and “fast-forwarded” for want of a better word. A lot of the key plot points or twists were seemed very 2-dimensional (the classic “show, don’t tell” writing was not here…). 

 

There was some occasional good writing addressing the trauma experienced by some of the characters but on the whole, these characters seemed to bounce back from some serious trauma without batting an eyelid!