Though the characteristics of the fiction are still consumable as commercial fiction, the actual structure works against this one. There is no believable stakes introduced until nearly 70% in and then beats don’t ramp up and the conclusion is quite lacklustre. There’s some interesting lore and some decent moments, but it doesn’t feel like this book has a clear idea of what it’s trying to do or how to execute it if it does.

This was interesting, but maybe more interesting if you know Foundation, which I do not. The first half of it dragged substantially, to the point where I almost DNF’d it. Thankfully it got substantially better when stakes actually manifested and cultural aspects at various locals are introduced, and were actually fairly interesting. There are a couple twists that also brought it together. The structure felt so weird to me. It was tedious and then ramped up dramatically. It was welcome but jarring. I’ll continue with the series but does feel like conceit and plot wise, not all that much was actually accomplished for such a lengthy novel?

It’s funny

This book is weird, but once it finds its pace it’s good weird. I tried to explain what it was and came up with subverting some Harry Potter tropes meets Battle Royale, kind of? It took me a bit to get a grip on it because I wasn’t sure if it was aiming for a healthy dose of humour.

An ostracized dark sorceress to be in a magical school that eats the students for fuel, cliques and good marks are literalizations making the school do or die, and the “chosen one” trope is this privileged idiot trying to save people but is actually making more problems for them, mostly.

It took me a minute to sort this out. But what really grounds this is Ell’s character arc and the interrogation of the social dynamics in high school. It’s got plenty of heart balancing the humour, and is actually fairly subversive of the genre, making it a page turner.

Ended up enjoying it quite a bit and would read another instalment.

I think if this had been a bit more tight it might have been a 5 star book for me. I’ve seen it compared to A Little Life, and I can understand that comparison somewhat, but only so far as tone and quality of prose.

Where A Little Life stresses and frays emotions to give them a heightened quality, this book usually tends to be less specific, making it more hyper realistic in its depiction of poverty, alcoholism, and patriarchy.

Shrugged Bain excels at making each plot beat feel like a recalled biography moment and it relentless dogged the coming-of-age of a young sweet boy with moments that would surely cripple most people.

The structure of the book works pretty well, but does feel a bit weird sometimes. Meandering rather than purposeful, and has a strange relationship with time. It bugged me at first but as I got more into it I didn’t mind.

I’m not sure there’s anything you’d be surprised about once you are clued into time and place and troubles of the city and characters, but it’s well done for what it is.

Beautifully written and the audiobook is particularly suited to this, since it’s written in a spoken word cadence. The narrative switches fairly often, briefly encapsulating varied thoughts regarding politics and identity, beauty, pain, racism, and so much more. The only thing I felt lacking was cohesion. While it suited the premise, it can feel a bit disjointed and almost feels like when you read a curated collection of separate short stories. Some of them you invariably end up liking a lot, others you could take or leave.