Hi Boundlings!

I enjoyed this book and the forum and noticed also quite a lot of posts stating a sense of confusion - I thought it may help to have a post early on in the forum (spoiler free - all of what I am mentioning is introduced in the very first 15 min/first chapter) to help you along the way if you are feeling that way.

The first character introduced (one of the main characters) is Chih: A non-binary cleric from the Singing Hills Abbey who records history.

They are traveling with Almost Brilliant: A talking hoopoe bird with a perfect memory who is Chih’s companion.

At this point of the book, they have now met with Rabbit: The old woman who was once In-Yo's servant and loyal handmaiden, and who tells the story in the later parts of the book. Chih often addresses Rabbit by "grandmother" (likely a translation for what I imagine is a type of honorific and respect for the elder woman).

This book switches between the two narrators (Chih and Rabbit) and two separate time periods.

I hope this helps and that you enjoy this tale!

People that hated this book usually complain about the prose being too flowery. I happen to love flowery prose so I was keen to see what the fuss was about. Unfortunately, I’m slowly swinging over to the this-book-is-unreadable camp.

Chapter 1 was trial by fire. s2g every second sentence contained a metaphor or simile, but then chapter 2 was a normal amount of literary-ish prose for a book described as ‘flowery’. I hoped that most haters just didn’t read past chapter 1 and I was in for a great time.

I’ve almost finished chapter 29 and I don’t know if I have the strength to read through. The reliance on similes and metaphors is making the book feel so repetitive and vague that I’m actually having trouble figuring out what’s happening to the characters.

Alternatively, I’m seriously considering skipping all Corin chapters and finishing Amelia’s POV. I think Corin is supposed to make the reader want to throw the book across the room, but why would I do that when Amelia’s whimsy is just a few pages away? This would give me a different, perhaps even more interesting, perspective on Corin’s chapters. That is of course assuming I ever attempted to drag myself through her angsty internal sludge again.