I think this book had great bones, but fell flat in a lot of areas. Not a bad book, but not great either. An enjoyable read that I feel with some tweaks (albeit major ones) could have easily been five stars for me.

First, some things I liked. The world building is phenomenal, I felt truly immersed in this setting. I loved the themes for most of the book and connected with them personally. Most of the characters are enjoyable, with interesting backstories and traits. I also found the twists predictable in a somewhat good way, everything felt foreshadowed but not SO heavily that it was unsatisfying to have predicted the plot ahead of time, but unfortunately the odd pacing meant that “ahead of time” lasted about 300 pages.

Now for what I didn’t quite like. The detailed descriptions helped with immersion to a point, but when EVERYTHING is over described it makes my eyes glaze over. Every single room and setting is described in vivid detail, which also means that I completely forget what the last room looked like by the time we have moved on to the next.

The little quips Fatma makes were entertaining at times, but just made me roll my eyes most of the time. Some of them were lazy and unnecessary, they didn’t add anything to her character or the plot, nor were they particularly clever or funny. Speaking of Fatma, she was one of my least favorite characters in the book, which is unfortunate since she is the narrator. She is supposed to be this experienced master detective, yet she just completely misses extremely clear and blatant clues. She also has very little character development. Honestly, next to none. I think the story would have been better told from Hadia’s POV, being younger and less experienced.

The pacing was very jarring. The first 70% or so of the book dragged on, and then suddenly sped up at the end to the point where I felt that surely I must have blanked out for a chapter since we couldn’t POSSIBLY have gotten to the end already.

As for the ending, I think it was questionable thematically. It felt empty. I felt disappointed, but also resigned because I did see it coming. Not the worst ending possible but also felt like it could have been better.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book, but I feel like if some of the descriptions were cut out and instead more time was spent on developing the side characters I would enjoy it more. Also potentially a revamp of the ending.