After loving the Broken Earth trilogy and The City We Became, I thought I'd dive into Jemisin's lesser known back catalog. I buddy read this book with a few friends, and it was such a good way to consume this book. I find Jemisin's books a little difficult to get into at first, and The Killing Moon was no exception. We have three different points of views on top of complex world building, so I didn't quite get into the flow of the story until about 100 pages in. However, I ended up really enjoying this one and struggled to put it down!
The world and magic are great, as you'd expect with one of her books, but the characters really make it come alive. Each main character is complicated and not always 100% likable, but they're complex and interesting to read about -- especially when cultures and ideologies clash.
The Killing Moon is the first book in a duology, but you can definitely read it as a standalone, as it feels like it's own self-contained story.