2021: Whew, what a whirlwind of a book.

Here's the deal: I was straight up lost for the first 150 pages of this book. I guess I am not super into fantasy, but I especially don't love being dropped straight into the middle of a new world with zero signposts. There were quite a few characters introduced in the first ~50 pages or so for flavor, that are never heard from again. Bardugo was also giving me major Russian novel vibes, with everyone having names, nicknames, job titles, and nicknames for their job titles. It took me a while to sort all of the proper nouns out.

That all being said, once I got into the vibe of what was happening and could more easily follow along with who was where, I enjoyed this story. Well, maybe "enjoyed" is not the right word - it's very dark, and the trigger warnings mentioned across this website and Twitter are warranted. A lot of very scary things happen to this poor main character, and most of them are not very pleasant to read about.

I did love how liberal / modern / woke the storyline was. Bardugo makes several great comments on racism, wealth, and victimization that made me snap my fingers in complete agreement. It was maybe a little incongruous that the people who can do magic couldn't solve all of their money problems, or that they still had to deal with sexism in a world where the power seemed more to reside with who was better at magic, not your gender.

Did I write myself a note around page 430 saying "Who the fuck is Isabel?" and I still can't answer this question to this day? Yes. But if you enjoy a good puzzle and don't mind spending a lot of time in the dark in the middle of a fantasy novel, and you want a smart, progressive world to inhabit, I definitely think you should give this a shot. If you're more like me, and don't enjoy feeling lost or not being able to follow what the main character is doing, maybe skip this one. It's definitely all puzzle-out-able (except for Isabel!), it just took a little longer than I was willing to tolerate.