ML Wang does a brilliant job forcing her readers to reflect on the cruelty of humanity and tackles the helplessness that I think a lot of people feel when confronted with the horrors of what people are capable of to those they deem as less than. The question of what really make a good person is explored by our main characters and it is so heartbreaking watching them grapple with the realities of their world. The book is incredible at building a completely new and fleshed out world and magic system while dealing with topics that are relevant our world today like xenophobia, classism, sexism and the intersectionality of these.

I highly recommend this book as I personally enjoyed every single aspect of it. I loved flawed characters and strong character development and ML Wang is great at delivering that. 

I went into this book with the very little knowledge of what it was about besides having a dark academia setting, and I appreciate that as it afforded me the opportunity to experience it at firsthand.

My favorite thing about M. L. Wang’s works however shall always be her unique ability to seize the most specific, unsettling, and devastating emotions and bring them to life through her words. Before I had any inkling of what the plot could be about, I cared about the characters she introduced me to and what would happen next. Unfortunately except towards the beginning, while I was interested in the events that would happen next I rarely found myself genuinely invested in the stakes. Perhaps, it’s easier for me to feel emotionally connected to smaller-scale, more personal conflict. Luckily, despite not relating to the main character, Sciona, much at all, I found her perspective and thoughts to be captivating, her boldness and willingness (stubbornness) to stand by her values admirable. The great character work really did a lot of heavy lifting in this book.

While I do think the messaging about sexism and colonialism was a little heavy handed, I don’t think that it’s any less enjoyable or important. I think her depictions of the truths and emotions that underly these things were realistic and necessary for to get the purpose of this particular book across. To compare it to Sword of Kaigen would be doing a disservice to both novels because they are fundamentally different in what they are trying to accomplish. 

This woman-in-STEM approach to the story and world was surprisingly interesting considering I generally prefer more traditional fantasy environments. Still, my heart is set on softer magic systems that bring wonder to my eyes and heal my soul. 
Overall, it was a good experience that I’d recommend.