I can't quite pin down why I didn't get on with this book. It's well written, there's some interesting worldbuilding, but ultimately, the story is kind of unsatisfying. I don't really like magical realism, I'm not sure if this counts as magical realism (it's set in a whole distinct fantasy world, it's not got much realism there) but I get magical realism vibes from it, and I think I didn't like it for the same reasons I don't like magical realism. (Which I also can't really pin down or express precisely).