Well damn. Excuse me while I go out and try and get my hands on the rest of this series. 

I did this as a buddy read and let me tell you, what a book to read together. There was SO MUCH to yap about at each of the breaks. Theories abound. 

First, Kuang is an incredible author who I feel excels at world building. Her fantasy worlds feel so grounded in reality and it doesn’t take much suspension of reality to buy into her world. Her worlds feel so real and like with a small twist in the fabric, that could be our world, and it’s all done without feeling like there’s huge sections of world building going on. 

The plot of this is madness. There is so much going on, so many different threads floating around that end up woven together and wow it works well. I was so invested, and I am still left wondering about who is evil and who is good in this… it’s all shades of gray and while I am rooting for Rin and excited for the next book, part of me is upset with her and disagrees with her choices. For me, that’s a great book. Shades of gray and levels to a character - no flat good and evil here. 

I definitely understand why people have been raving about this. Excited to read the rest of the series.