I think I finally have a theory of what's going on under the text of this book that makes it so interesting. Let's say that the cosmic religion is a cipher for toxic masculinity, which is why it's so determined to incite cruelty, destruction and abuse. Josephine and her predecessors are their avatar of the ideal woman, frozen in time as a young adult, doomed to play out the virgin/whore dichotomy repeatedly until a grizzly end starts the next cycle. So it's been until the 20th century where this iteration finally learns enough about what has been happening to her and her kind to try and break the cycle, but still has to suffer through her curse. In the end, empathy is the thing that defeats the monsters and her reward is to grow old and no longer for the mold that was cast for her. I think this can be read as a feminist parable from this perspective, which is probably why I've come back to it for a second turn. There's much that it fails to address which is partly what makes it interesting, and sometimes it feels like it's simply reinforcing the narratives and behaviours it's maybe supposed to be critiquing, but I appreciate the attempt.