Difficult to rate, especially as a reread a decade on of a book that I remembered loving. I still really enjoy this style of writing where so much meaning can be found in the negative space of what goes unsaid (shout-out to Ward's translators note for perhaps being more interesting than the book itself). I just don't feel tremendously compelled at this point in my life by the philosophical questions being explored, certainly not enough to counterbalance the deeply unlikable characters and violent content. Some chapters were very gripping and interesting to consider, but as I reflect on the book overall I somehow just feel very meh about it.

Really enjoyed this one. The magic system was interesting (though it did require some patience to puzzle out), and the setting was easy to immerse into on an isle that felt positively alive, even down to the vivid descriptions of food. I thought there was a good balance between the mysterious plot and the compelling character arcs, and if anything, I'd say the heavy marketing/positioning of the book as enemies-to-lovers was the biggest shortcoming since that aspect of the story felt the most contrived and unnecessary. The "main" character was also a bit of a weak point (or maybe just has more growth to come?) Otherwise, I really had a great time with the seamless shifts between POVs and how each felt so unique and dynamic. My personal favorite had to be Sidra whose POV featured a truly beautiful journey with grief and faith and a complex mid-evolution relationship. I also appreciated that this book generally avoided so many of my pet peeves (very few illogical characters that sat on relevant information just to draw the plot out, everything tied together without details being mentioned and then forgotten by the author); really the only one sort of hit was that the ending is quite a cliffhanger to push readers to the second book in the duology, and the transition to set up the next story seemed quite forced. Luckily, I'm reading this after it is already out, and I heard great things about the audiobook narrator, so I'm still looking forward to check the sequel out in that format!