Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for an arc of this book.

As a fan of Monstress, this was a book I was looking forward to. Howeve, this collection of short stories was a mixed bag. Only a few of the stories really stood out to me. They were all written well but some just fell flat. The Briar and the Rose, and Tangleroot Palace were probably my favorite stories from the collection. It just felt like there was something missing from the rest of them. There was a sort of disconnect across all the stories and they felt odd to be grouped together. The collection was not as inventive as I felt it could have been or was trying to be. And although The Briar and the Rose was one of the stories that stood out, it felt too short. Its concept is one that I wish was expanded upon. The last story, Tangleroot Palace, was actually a novella and the length fit well. Overall, I would probably read other stories by Liu, but this collection just did not do it for me overall.