Well written and incredibly interesting! 

I loved the magical system in this book! It was incredibly well developed and I deeply enjoyed not only the characters relationships to it but also just the way it was all portrayed. I enjoyed the clarity with which it was all conveyed and the various functionings of it.

Both Clem and Cris were really interesting and distinct characters to read -- they are the protagonists of the story, although we do get a few other POVs thrown in, which I also appreciated as it gave the book a lively pace and a lot more moral greyness, which I do not think we get to see particularly often. The twins are both deeply complex characters and I really, really want to see who they become in the aftermath of this book. 

I enjoyed the various relationships within the book! Family is obviously very key and I loved the way everyone was deeply fleshed out, It was a pleasure to see basically competent adults in a YA fantasy novel. The twins love interests and the way it all played out was very captivating -- Clem's story seemed a tiny bit insta-lovey but I am nonetheless invested in what happens next. Cris's story is deeply empowering and, without spoilers, you are in for a rather heavy discussion with her. 

The plot was wonderful -- whenever I felt my interest dwindling a tiny bit, a new twist would occur and they were always so drastic that I would immediately get sucked back into the book. 

The only thing is that I am no longer quite the target audience for the character journeys that our protagonists go on, so at times their sentiments were a bit difficult to fully feel for me but I am very, very invested and I do recommend it immensely for anyone who is interested, 

Beautiful descriptive writing! I really enjoyed the visceral horror elements of this book -- the descriptions are just impeccable  and there was a very defined sense of atmosphere that I appreciated. Andrew's anxiety and panic attacks were represented quite well and there was a lot of creative imagery. 

Here's the thing: I have a very particular pet peeve regarding a certain type of mental health representation that I really do not care for still being around. The blurring of fiction and reality is often very creative but there is a certain extent at which it stops being inventive and just starts bordering on harmful mental health representation. Unfortunately, that is what happened here and what happens in many magical realism books that attempt to involve mental health. To be honest, that is what knocked the book from a 4 to a 2.5 for me. 

I think the characters could have been fleshed out better -- I felt like we were often told why we should like a character or care for them but not often given an opportunity to create our own opinions on the matter. It would have been nice to see more involvement of the side characters that were given such a grave importance within the book. 

Unfortunately, I did not care much for the romance. Again, since description takes up such an impressive majority of the book, it was hard to really care fully about it and it felt as if we didn't see them interact enough, in a way. 

Overall, not for me! But definitely not a horrible book.