While I could never really find myself clicking with any of the characters, and I did find the MC annoying at times, the plot was interesting and I really loved the world. My only qualms about the ending is that it should've ended sooner, with the final scenes being her stumbling around in a forest and seeing certain portions of beautiful scenery. It felt like it plateaued too much as an ending, and while I was still led on enough to want to continue, it just felt like it had dragged along.

Overall a decent read, but not a top one of this year.

“This is a madhouse!”
“The world’s a madhouse. This is a place to heal it.”

Stars (Out of 10): 10/10 Stars

Favorite Character: I can honestly say that I felt for them all.

Spoiler Free: Some novels need 500 pages to make you like the cast of characters. Give Maggie Stiefvater 18, and you’ll be ready to put your life on the line for them. The way Maggie chose to use POV and focalization, when combined with the amazing metaphors used constantly, made the characters feel real and three dimensional from the start. For a tale as character-based as this one, this fact was integral to my enjoyment of it.

This is not an action novel, not a thriller. This is not the book that will keep you up until the late hours of the night, gripping pages and sweating bullets. You won’t zoom through each word and sentence and phrase as if you can’t get enough, as if you are racing to the end. This book is a slow one, and I have to say I loved it for it. The changes, the miracles, are not ones that should be expected to happen in an hour, a day, even a month. So yes this book was slow, with language that was meant to make you slow down rather than speed up. Yes this book, of 320 pages, took me more time to get through than books with much higher page count. But it fits the story, fits the meaning this book is trying to push. It forces you to stop and think about what you read, about the meaning Maggie is trying to get across. (And if you just can’t handle slow books, no matter how meaningful, than unfortunately I don’t believe this book is for you.)

I also have to admit that this is the book that made me fall in love with Maggie’s writing style. I’ve read/tried to read many of her books so far, and while they’ve always hooked me plot/character wise, the pace was often off putting. But taking my time with this one made me see all the hidden gems Maggie sticks into her writing. From lengthy metaphors that somehow explain perfectly what the story is trying to get across, to short lines here and there that make you stop and think, it shows how much attention to detail Maggie pays, and I cannot wait to read more of her books now.

One last thing that I loved about the book (at least, spoiler-free thing), was its level of immersion. When I was reading this book, nothing else existed. I was in Bicho Raro, seeing these people, experiencing all the emotions. Even inside the novel, mentions of other places on Earth were jarring, because while reading, it felt like Bicho Raro was all that there was, all that needed to be. The level of culture, lore, and backstory that this stand-alone had was something all stand-alones should strive for. The lacking part of most fantasy stand-alones did not exist here (which I consider to be lack of immersion, since there are less pages to develop an entire world in.)

I didn’t know what to expect from this book, and I’m still uncertain of how exactly it affected me, how it changed me. All I know is that it did.

“I was looking for a miracle, but I got a story instead, and sometimes those are the same thing.”

Careful! Spoilers beyond this point!

Spoilers: I have to say that my favorite thing about this book (Okay, that’s a lie. I loved a lot of things about this book) was that there was no big bad guy, no evil villain of villains. In a book about finding yourself, and fighting the darkness we often keep within, the lack of a character that can be painted as the villain, the reason why everything is wrong, was important. It goes to show that, often, we are our own worst enemy, by holding on to poisonous untruths or our fear of change.

I also absolutely loved all the animal imagery/symbolism, as their extreme/quick movements often woke up the books in the more action-based, intense portions. I also just really like the owls, even if I can now only picture one with a human face (and that kinda creeps me out.)

Also, can we talk about the amazing world-building/story-building done for this standalone? It seriously tops that of most other stand-alones, and even some series! I never had to question why something happened the way it did, or why this rule or that one existed, because there was always a story or reason behind everything. Additionally, the amount of attachment Maggie was able to create to even the smallest of side-characters was amazing, as the few paragraphs dedicated to each of them were just so well-written!

And while yes, some people may say that with all this talk of disaster that the ending was a tad too happy, I like the fact that this book may bring hope to people looking for their own miracles, as I know it did to me.

“She would bloom where she was planted and let her roots close around the throats of her enemies.”

Stars (Out of 10): 7/10 Stars

Favorite Character: Gotta say Shiro, only character who didn’t seem super evil? (Oh and the Crown Prince, he was decent too)

Spoiler Free: Now I’m not going to say this is the best release of 2017, because it really wasn’t. But I will say that this was a very enjoyable read, and it's still messing with me right now.

Xifeng is not an MC that you necessarily want to live up to, but she’s amazing because of that. She is strong and powerful yes, but she is also selfish, shallow, and to be honest, more than a little bit evil. Getting to be inside her brain was downright scary at points, but that just contributed to the uniqueness of this book. The book still wants you to support her, and this creates almost an inner battle within us. Do we support this women, ready to do anything to follow her destiny, or do we support those that try to bring her down?

But the characters was not the only thing this book had going for it. While I did find the plot predictable at points, and not necessarily the book's strongest trait, I absolutely loved the world. While it could have been more developed, I really enjoyed a book that just seemed fully immersed in the world’s culture. It didn’t stop to explain every little thing, it just existed, and that made the story flow pretty well in my opinion.

Lastly, this book went super fast. The more simple level of writing, when compared to Laini Taylor’s Strange The Dreamer and Maggie Stiefvater’s All The Crooked Saints at least, fits well to the story, but also makes it not that difficult to digest, meaning I actually finished this quite quickly! Overall, in terms of language and writing style, it felt like just your average YA fantasy.

Careful! Spoilers beyond this point!

Spoilers: Here, I’m going to try and discuss why I didn’t give this book a 10/10, and this mainly is due to the plot.

For one, I never felt the conflict of Wei vs. Court, since I could never find myself cheering for Wei and Xifeng to be together. Right off the bat, Wei is too controlling, too judgemental, and we just never see his sweet side without his angry side. This means that I also never get her sacrifice or struggle between choosing to continue her quest at court, or simply running away. I’m not even convinced Xifeng ever truly loved Wei, as she pointed out his cons more than his pros, and often referred to him as a friend as well. Additionally, she completely forgot about Wei (in the thoughts shared with us), as soon as she got to court, only stopping to think about him when the celebration came, as well as her next chance to see him.

Another flaw was the predictability of one of the main twists, Guma being the true mother of Xifeng. When Xifeng runs away, Guma refers to her as daughter, and while Xifeng brushes this off, it seemed very clear to me how obvious this foreshadowing was.

Lastly, the overarching presence of Guma, and Xifeng’s reliance on her, felt very polarizing at points. I completely understand the struggle of an abused child between love and hate of that parent/guardian, but Xifeng’s struggle felt way too back and forth. At points, she was ready to completely forget about her, but as soon as Xifeng started to realize what being truly fed and cared for felt like, she began to love Guma more than hate her, which just felt strange. Additionally, by the end it seems like we were supposed to realize that Guma did her best for Xifeng, and that’s all you can ask for from a parent, but I can’t find it in me to forgive a mother who chose to beat her child to protect her.

But regardless of all that, seeing an evil queen rise, and become even more evil throughout the story, was definitely different than everything I’ve ever read before, and I loved it! Usually you see this change occur backwards, with either the MC or main villain working to extinguish the darkness from their hearts, or even feel some remorse at their actions, but it was almost a breath of fresh air to see the mind of a villain so set in what they wanted, and willing to actually do whatever it takes to get it.