This was a wild ride of the book! The plot feels highly original and I loved the worldbuilding. I loved the majority of the characters, though I do feel like Elegy herself held us at arm’s length. She’s paralysed by grief and indecision for a lot of the book, and by the time she isn’t anymore, I’m still not sure what words I would use to describe her. But I really loved Theren, and I LOVED Hela. Her chapters were such a random addition but sorely needed for a bit of levity. “I guess there’s never a good time to talk about a weird plant” may be one of my new favourite quotes!

The world is so cool, very dark but she really dug deep into the concepts.

I was really hoping for a Rava PoV by the end, that hasn’t happened, but somehow, I think it may be coming in book 2…

I’ve only ever read the first Divergent book by Roth, and nothing else since, so this was a really special surprise for me!

This is a really incredibly grim story, dressed up in a pretty colourful cover. The blurb obviously suggests how dark it is but… it really is dark.

Meena and Abdul were the heart of this story for me and I adored them so much. I wish we spent more time with them than with Smita.

While Smita and Mohan were both compelling characters, I struggled to believe there was any chemistry between them. I’m pretty sure this is because the author used Mohan so much as a surrogate for India, challenging Smita constantly about her mixed feelings towards her homeland.

I also felt like there were a few things that were left unfinished by the end, Smita lying to her dad and also WTF was going on with Nandini?! For a book with such sticky, heavy subject matter, I didn’t love that it basically ended with an airport run.

The writing style in the italicised Meena chapters is lovely. The Smita chapters are a lot more basic and matter of fact — presumably to reflect the fact that she’s a journalist, but I found it jarring to return to every time.

Overall I’m glad I read it, and I feel I definitely learnt a lot about a part of Indian culture that I know very little of.