short, beautifully written, unique, draws from Asian traditions and language.

i appreciated the story's take on gender, even though it did sometimes feel too explicit that it was a metaphor for transness. also wished there were any characters who continued to use they/them pronouns in adulthood-- and Akeha's eventual choice felt a bit of a cop-out in that sense. i especially enjoyed the narrative device of a language with masculine, feminine and neutral pronouns and how one of the protagonists used it to figure out their gender by "trying on" different pronouns.

in a longer format, things could have gotten a bit bogged down in cliché: the two twins who end up on different sides of a political situation had the potential to feel formulaic. in this shorter format much of the story happens "off screen", with many long jumps in time, which kept it interesting and allowed it to have a tight focus on a few characters, and on the nuances of their emotions and relationships. the competing philosophy/religions were also interesting, and again i think that benefited from the brevity, as lengthy philosophical discussions between characters can get quite tiresome. as it was, it trusted the reader to fill in the blanks, and was better for it.

overall it had a lot of depth and beauty for its short length and i'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.