Everyone kept talking about the high stakes in this book. How is there a war and yet hardly any of the named characters die? Random classmates from Sinegard pop up throughout the story in really unexpected ways (unexpected because they should have died based on what happens to them). I fully expect Nezha to return since we didn’t explicitly see him die and apparently you have to watch someone be decapitated for them to actually be dead in this book.

I also didn’t like the super intense tonal shift from the first half to the second half. The first half reads much more like a YA. Actually, it all kind of does except for the really graphic depictions of violence. I understand the graphic scenes were purposeful, but they really didn’t seem to fit with the tone of the rest of the book.

I was also really disappointed in Rin’s (and the story’s as a whole) dependence on drugs to move the plot forward. It’s a personal preference, but I don’t like that a mentor figure gave Rin, a child at the time, drugs in order to be more “enlightened.” It feels cheap and gross to me.

I liked it enough, but haven’t decided if I’ll keep going with the series.