This is my second book by Hardinge and I'm beginning to get a feel for just how weird her YA novels are. I feel like she's willing to start with premises that are so far beyond ordinary strange and just embrace the oddness of them.
A fairy tale, in the sense that it's a tale about the fae, but also something of a horror story (as so many fairy stories should be), Hardinge crafts a beautiful and terrible story from an unlikely perspective that never faltered. The best part, at least for me, was how she never dragged out any big reveals past when the reader figures out what's going on. Rather than making her characters completely un-insightful, she let the narrative flow at a reasonable pace and made each big reveal an excuse to up the ante. Which is so much more pleasant to read.
...why yes, yesterday was an extremely long day as I sat around at 40+ weeks pregnant with nothing to do. Did my goodreads updates give that away?

So...like apparently everyone else, I ended up here via Foz's review and, while I take some issues with her characterization of the book (it is more like Goblin Emperor than Ancillary Justice, but they still strike me as very different books indeed and recommending this to people who liked those is not a sure bet), I'm glad I came over.
Sanders is doing something fascinating here with the bildungsroman in fantasy. More often, books in fantasy with elements of the bildungsroman are basically the story of the epic hero. This is closer to Great Expectations, in a way, than to the hero's quest. The world, life--the life one is born into and the life one seeks out, the implacable society and its dictates are not so much antagonists as obstacles to navigate. And the reward for getting through is having done so, having grown up.
What makes Sanders book different is that, in setting the bildung in fantasy, she has a chance to question and think about so much of how the world works, how we think and how we understand those who are different than us.
With all that said, it was an exhausting read. (Or I'm just exhausted). And one that I can appreciate and find technically excellent but not the kind of book with which I want to fall in love.
This is the problem - I never liked Great Expectations.

Walton's work remains weird and fascinating and, while this book is just a continuation of the first one's conceit, it almost works better as it finds a way to pay even more attention to its characters.
And then, of course, there's the weird as all heck ending which makes me very interested indeed to see book 3.

NK Jemisin is one of those authors who, no matter how good I remember her being, is better than that. Her work is gorgeous and gut wrenching and she is one of the best Epic fantasy writers I have ever read. Her characters are more real than most people and the world she constructs in the background of their stories teems with life in its own right.
Basically, any list of the greatest Epic fantasy that does not include at least one of her works is woefully incomplete.

The interesting thing about Atkinson is that even when she's not writing a mystery novel, her narratives build up with that same sense of anticipation and wonder. There's no whodunit at the heart of this story, but it unfolds before the reader in the same style until you realize that the mystery is how each of these human beings became the people that they are. And the stories of that becoming combine the best elements of both mystery and literary fiction. Atkinson is just the best.

This was my first introduction to Narnia at a very young age, which was probably for the best or else it might have taken me longer than it already has to fall in love with fantasy. I would consider this book, for all its flaws and occasional moments when it dates itself (like the bit with the turkish delight), to be compulsory reading for any child. The story is wonderful and compelling and highlights the struggles between good and evil at the heart of epic fantasy without ever ruining the villain and making the reader question her. Also, for something written almost sixty years ago, it is quite evenhanded with its treatment of its male and female heroes. I cannot sing the praises of this book loud enough, nor will I even try.

And Leckie sticks the dismount! Like the earlier books in the series, this one asks hard questions, give great answers and ends in a way that feels both fulfilling--this story, this part of these characters lives, has come to an end--and yet like it's only one small story in a very big universe.
I hope there are more books in this universe. I can't wait to see what Leckie does next!