This book was pretty frustrating. I enjoyed by time with The House Wars and was trying to follow the recommended reading order. So I started this book hoping I’d find it as captivating. However, I find everything in this book to be a little too complicated. I almost feel like I’ve started the second book in a series rather than the first.

The world feels huge but as a reader you’re not really setup for it. There’s too many characters, too many titles, and all of it is thrown at you very fast. Not to mention it can sometimes be hard to know who’s talking to who in a given moment.

I’ve seen people say this book really takes off at the 50% mark, but I can’t get there. Around page 150 I started skimming, and before I knew it I wasn't sure what was going on, and couldn’t be bothered to care anymore. I hate not finishing books, but this is way too work for fantasy. A shame because I had high hopes that I’d get through all Michelle West’s books eventually. But I’m stopping here for now