You know what? For what this book is, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s action-packed dad fiction with flawed characters who are trying their best, which obviously wasn’t good enough for their sons in a lot of ways. It’s a fast read and some might say the themes of acceptance and allyship are a little 101. The situations the two main characters get themselves into are highly unlikely. But I just went along for the ride and had a great time. There were a few grammatical and copy errors throughout, but that’s just my editor eye coming into play. Overall, if you want a book that reads like an action movie, try this one out.

I read this book right after reading Sabriel…so completely out of order. But this is a prequel, so I think it worked out. It was interesting seeing Belisaere hundreds of years before the Sabriel timeline, when it was decaying and on the precipice of ruin. One could say there are some similarities between Nix’s malfunctioning fictional society and our modern society, idk!

I have mixed feelings about the plot and characters. Overall, I enjoyed it, but felt like an extra layer of depth was missing. Clariel is not a perfect character, which I really liked, but her naïveté made her come off as dense and self-centered instead of “complicated” and nuanced. She was so obsessed with going back to the great forest that it was like…girl what? Like you have two eyes that can see the problems going on right in front of you. Sooo why are you ignoring them?! Anyway, the plot kind of lagged about 60% in, but then picked up at the very end. The action at the end is what made this a 3.5 instead of a 3-star rating for me.