This book was amazing. If it weren't for the fact that it was sometimes content heavy (betrayal, assault, abuse), it would have been a novel that I easily devoured as quickly as possible.

But, as it was written as an allegory to police violence (especially that of police brutality toward Black Americans, which is noted in the afterword at the end), it often struck me so much that I had to stop and take breaks.

The entire book is beautiful, though. The setting is gorgeous, and the world-building is striking. The women (Zélie and Amari) are phenomenal characters, and the weakness and vulnerabilities that men like Tzain get to exhibit are the best. It's such a fantastic story, and that's really all I can keep saying. Even Inan is able to be an enchanting character, despite his conflicting emotions.

This is one of the few novels where the deaths of non-focus characters actually hit me really hard, which is most certainly the point.

I literally have no complaints (except the fact that I managed to buy the one book with a weird see-through page), and it's going to be me repeating the same few things over and over again: I love this, and it is among my favourite books involving a fantasy-magic setting.