if this is the start of a series, I don’t feel compelled to continue and will have forgotten most of the plot/lore by the time a sequel comes. I didn’t know going into this that kerstin hall didn’t believe in ANY kind of hand-holding with her style of world building—there’s no glossary of terms or even a map, when it’s so obvious that this complex world needed at least one of those things to help orient readers. I struggled pretty much the entire time trying to figure out if “herald”, “favoured”, “apostate”, “vassal”, “adherent”, all terms used over and over again meant “worshipper” or completely different concepts. the only explanations of the magic system aren’t made any plainer because the only character who can explain it is too much of a brainiac type to even dumb it down for the rest of the characters.

throwing a new reader into a world like this without an appendix is like sending someone off on a solo rafting trip without a life jacket, and this decision seriously gutted my enjoyment. all that focus and energy spent wanting to understand the magic and lore, only for its ending to bottom out and focus on a romantic direction I wasn’t interested in seeing to begin with. I simply didn’t buy into karys and ferain turning their forced situationship into anything more than a friendship forged in eldritch-level trauma 🥴