Oh man. I am already so lost. So many things to keep track of. Such a complex magic system. It is reminding me of cracking open Onyx Storm and Crescent City #1 for the first time, for some reason. Just that overwhelming feeling, but very exciting at the first time. My paperback edition also has the most delicious new book smell so that is helping.

I think Sen Lin Yu is an absolutely amazing author. It is so obvious she has put a lot of work into this book! 1024 pages is no joke! I have not read Manacled but I felt the characters felt familiar while reading. She doesn't touch at all on HP or Manacled in her promotion and I understand why that is but I think the characters being so familiar helped me to emotionally connect with them much faster than I would have.

I think calling this book a romantasy is boxing the book in a way it should not be. It is so much more! And the aspects of war and terror and absolute carnage she deals with in the second part is devastatingly close to reality these days.

Having said that the story of Ferron and Helena is integral to the overall plot, they were key characters and how it ends really draws attention to the unsung "heroes" in such situations. I put the heroes in quotations cause neither actually were. They were just human I think left with the worst choices possible.

Definitely gonna be my favourite book of 2025!

Should i read this book? My friend said negative things about it but i also see lots of positive reviews. Is it worth it?

boooring

I love this book. I have read Yellowface and am concurrently reading Babel, and I genuinely believe thaf, stylistically, this book is a marriage between Yellowface and Babel. It contains the wit, humor, and satire of YF, and the academic nature of Babel. I feel like I’m learning a lot while following Alice and Peter’s journey.

I do think that the promotional language around this book being a romance were overshot—the romance is such a small part of the story.

I am REALLY enjoying the Alice’s inner musings, though. Her character is exceptionally relatable to me as someone who was part of higher academia for a while.

As a Berkeley alum, I’m also enjoying the digs at my alma mater hahahahaha.

I'm attempting the tandem read with Libby's 14-day limit I'm stressed

TW: Suicidality

Y’all I’m highlighting something on every page. The way she’s talking about suicidality incredible.

“You’d like to find out where the boundary is,” said Elspeth, not unkindly. “You’d like to know when it goes from feeling pretty blue, to thinking you wouldn’t mind if a bus ran you over, to actively stringing a rope together and kicking off a chair. Is that right?”

But also it’s so good I have to pause after every chapter.