Really lovely book - didn't blow my mind but don't have any specific complaints. Explores religion and being a woman in Islam in a very nuanced way, as well as tackling family and politics.

Teo's writing is BEAUTIFUL. I loved that she uses lots of monstrous imagery in a book about horror movies, it really set the atmosphere and made the writing incredibly vivid and enjoyable. However, I was very bored with the story - I know a lot of people like that it's fragmented, and my girlfriend (who loves this book) said she appreciates that it doesn't really have a fixed narrative, as it's closer to how real life works, but I don't get along with that kind of structure. The story felt too random and pointless, and I was waiting for some bigger plot point that never happened. This is more like random snippets of characters' lives than a novel, and I just wasn't invested in it.

While this is funny at times and poses interesting and important questions, I didn't particularly enjoy reading it. The characters are too symbolic for me to get attached to them, and the symbolism in the book as a whole is just a bit too heavy handed for my personal taste. Some sections were very enjoyable, but as a whole I found it a bit tedious to get through, especially considering that it's quite long.

I ADORED this. It took a while to really get going at the start and I wasn't immediately feeling it, but the perfect balance between suspense and humour, alongside the WONDERFUL characters of course, kinda made its way into my heart. The characters are all really unique and memorable, the world and magic are interesting, the political intrigue is present, and it definitely helps that there are quite a few heist type situations! The queer romance hasn't kicked off yet, but the main characters are SO OBVIOUSLY in love and I personally love slow-burn romance so I cannot WAIT for them to get together in the later books.

One thing I didn't appreciate is the representation of disfigurement - it's not the worst I've encountered, but it could definitely be a lot better. I also hope there are more female characters later on; the ones so far are lovely and very different from each other, but it's all around a very male dominated book. I'm super excited to keep reading this series!! ALSO IF ANYONE HURTS MY USELESS SON I WILL CUT THEM --

A bit fluffy for me but quite funny!!

This was so bad that it was funny