From the first page, I was locked in on this book. Like the shroud on cradle worlds, I absolutely devoured this story. I have absolutely nothing to complain about: the worldbuilding was airtight, logical, and fascinating; the characters were lovable and interesting and frustrating in the right ways; the plot and the mystery were compelling and jaw dropping. There were so many parts of this where I got invested.

This world does a fascinating thing where death is meaningless, and yet that somehow makes the deaths of characters have far more weight to it. I absolutely loved the body printing and neural mapping the second I heard about it, and the more it was explored, the more I adored it. This isn't a utopia, far from it, but at the same time I felt like I could live in this world. It has been a LONG time since I read a story where I genuinely wanted to embed myself into it, get to know the characters, and join in on the plot.

It's been just as long since I was so invested in a canon couple! Most of the time, even when romance is a focus of the story, I tend to not get super invested or even find it distracting to the plot. But I absolutely loved the enemies-to-lovers-to-spoiler relationship of Tarquin and Naira. I wanted so badly for them to get together, and was kicking my feet at their scenes toward the end of the book!

Wow, was the villain done right. There's something to be said to present a world where the good guys are not on even footing with the bad guys, but they have the resources to figure it out, then to reveal that no, things are much, MUCH worse than anybody thought and actually there's no real feasible way out of this plot. My favorite stories are the ones where you wonder until the last second (and even during it) how the fuck anyone can get out of this, and The Blighted Stars absolutely delivered.

10/10, cannot recommend enough, I adored this story