This is an incredible example of the teaching of "show, don't tell"

The art is gorgeous, and conveys so perfectly the feelings that the protagonist is experiencing, while also perfectly depicting the Monolith, a non-sentient thing as a villan. Making it something we both fear and hate.

DNF
I have spent a lot of time trying to determine why I couldn't get into this book, and have tried to restart several times.
But I fell asleep listening to this several times, and also my brain would just totter of into a new direction leaving this book behind.
While Adjoa Andoh has a gorgeous voice, but it just wasn't for me in the case of this book.

This book is 12.5 hours long, but you would know that once you dive in, it full throttle going forward, with a couple spots that let you catch your breath for only a moment.
This is then turned past 10 in the last quarter of the book, so much so I found myself re-listening to chapters and segments over and over again to make sure I really understood what happened.

I loved Ren as a character, she felt a lot darker then the typical protagonist. Paired with her relationship with her brother, Neven. Their deep love for one another is beautiful, but also how he works as her own Jiminy Cricket.

While I can't comment heavily on the end of the book without revealing all to much. But it is like Baker took everything that could have been stretched out into a second book and folded it into such a tiny package that it really does jump out at you when you're not expecting it.

This is the type of book you pick up and know that the person behind it had a fire in their heart driving them to write this.
As I was reading this more then once I thought of people I wanted to slam this book down in front of, and be like here read this, and maybe you might stop acting like such a terrible person.

While this book is primarily about Homelessness, it covers so much more and does an awesome job and destroying the assumptions that are often held.

This book didn't live up to the hype.
Was it a fun read? yes.
Did it have moments where I genuinely enjoyed it? yes.
Would I recommend it? eh...?

I found this enjoyable for the same reasons I often find fanfiction enjoyable. I'm more wrapped up in the events of the book then the characters per say. I have my cookie cutter mold of what these characters are and don't need it to be expanded upon.
This is where this book fell short for me. Everyone outside of Alex (and honestly Henry) felt like interesting and unique individuals.

More then once I found myself thinking about how much more interesting it would be to be on the periphery of these events rather then from Alex's Point of View. I know at the end I was thinking about how much more entertaining this book would have been through Shaan and Zahra's point of views.
Like legitimately the whole Climax could have been Zahra learning that Shaan had known they were dating all along and had been helping them sneak around behind her back.

This was a fun listen, it just wasn't as good as it could have been.

For me this book was all about being in the right mindset while reading it.
The first time I picked this up, this was really just some words on the page. Which made me sad because Lovecraftian things are often my jam.

I thankfully came back to try and read it again,
This time I found so much more enjoyment in this, and it felt like walking into the pages of a familiar book,

This is the book I've picked up when I've had small blocks of time to read but not enough to commit into getting into a book.
And every time I found myself giggling over it.
Stephanie K. Wright is a person after my own heart, the words they have chosen to use and her way of using them in sentences is something that constantly cracked me up.

I will say that this is going to be my number 1 gift to people this holiday season, just because it brought me so much joy and in the era of working from home more then a few of my friends would enjoy new words for telling their coworkers to stop eating unmuted.

There is some part of me that feels like I should give this book four stars. Because I found myself inhaling this gorgeously written world. I found the magic system intriguing for sure, as well as the history of Solaria.
But at the end of the day, I felt like I was in a dance with this book. While I always long for reveals that I don't predict early on, this book managed to leave me feeling like no questions were truly answered. While I know this is just the first book in a duology, and not all cards could be laid out bare, I was left feeling unfulfilled.

Spoiler

I will say that the tidbit that was maybe supposed to make me feel somewhat fulfilled may have been lost on me. The ending lines of the Epilogue:
"He would not turn away. Not anymore. As the others talked over him, the magician stared at his fragmented reflection without fearing it for once. Without knowing that on the other side of the mirror, another magician stared back."
Like maybe it's meant to be ominous, maybe it's supposed to be hopeful that Eva or Kallia is still alive. I just feel so completely unfulfilled.

Would I recommend this book? Probably, but only once both halves of the duology are out and they can be consumed as a whole.

Take 2

So I picked this up because I didn't think I recalled this well enough to delve into the second book of this duology without a thorough refresher and I wasn't wrong.

I had forgotten just how how vast this world was and even without being moments away from delving into the second book. I don't feel the same level of unfulfilledness that I had when I read this book a year ago.

While I can't say I felt like I gained a lot more of insight into this world by reading this again, I did find a lot of enjoyment in reading this again. So much so I can see myself picking it up again in the future to once again delve into.

So I looked up the definition of Snuff, just to make sure I understood what it was more closer to the definition and not just what I had come to know it as through the inference.

While I'm not sure this fully meets the definition of it. This feels like a Snuff fic, and to make it worse a Snuff Fic that makes itself seem Gay.

Like in retrospect I could see some parallels to Little Red Riding Hood. but overall it wasn't fun to read and was quite graphic over all.