This is a book that isn't so much very unique as it puts a unique spin on older tropes. I enjoyed it very much.

I enjoyed it partly because Wasp, the protagonist, is a protagonist I very much enjoy. She's a badass, but not quite so badass as she thinks, or as she needs to be to escape the horrific situation she is trapped in. It also features my favourite dynamic, two people who have to work together but have no reason to trust each other, and plenty of reason not to.

Wasp's world is a teeny, starving village at the end of the world that she exists on the periphery of, and a priest who rules her life and death. The world building is more hints than details, and I think is at its weakest when it backtracks to explain the setup.

I read this right before [b:The Girl with All the Gifts|17235026|The Girl with All the Gifts|M.R. Carey|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1403033579s/17235026.jpg|23753235] which it exists in interesting counterpoint to. It deals with many of the same themes, but is a much more uplifting book about the unquiet dead and the apocalypse.

Contains animal harm, and bad child-rearing, child harm, but does not use sexual menace even when given plenty of opportunity to do so.