My feelings on this book are mixed. The relationships were largely underdeveloped, the tone was inconsistent (funny and serious moments feeling sometimes misplaced), and there were some generally odd or unjustified choices that either felt contrived or didn’t make sense. That being said, we got to see lots of really cool settings in this book with diverse terrains and unique Asian inspired cultures, we got a fun new cast of characters, we got to learn more about the magic system and some of the darker sides of it, we got a complex war complete with many competing and unpredictable factions (this was a big strength of the book- it is obvious that there is a lot going on that our tiny rebel group is not privy to, which makes the war feel big), and a lot of groundwork was laid for a lot of interesting possibilities in the next one.

This book deals a lot with trauma response as well as grief and generally handles those well. It also brings up questions about corruption and power hunger within rebellions (though it might have benefited from more subtlety).

We don’t get a lot from the cast of the first book, which I missed, but it is clear they are coming back in Book 3, so I am excited to see how they come in/how new and old characters collide.

This felt very much like a middle book of a trilogy. Despite being frustrated by some of the writing/narrative choices, I really want to know what happens/I am excited to see how the third one ties the two together!