This was a fabulous debut YA epic fantasy adventure! The worldbuilding was top notch, a vast fantastical world that we've only just been introduced to. I'm super curious and excited to see even more of the inner depths explored in coming novels.

The characters were compelling and mostly multifaceted. I would have loved to see more past the surface on a few of the side characters, but we got a good feel for quite a few of them and that was nice. I think the alternating POV chapters helped us get a good feel for the main characters. The 'inner phantom' dialogues could be a smidge confusing at first, discerning whether they were speaking to someone aloud or the phantom inside. After awhile it became pretty seemless though, which was kinda surprising and impressive to be honest. The phantoms in general were such a cool idea and I really enjoyed that element.

The journey was fraught with danger (and excitement!) from the very beginning and it pretty well kept it up till the end. Even the more down training type time had its perils. The tale ended in a good spot, even if it was a massive cliffhanger. I'll definitely be anxiously awaiting the sequel!

I received an arc of this book from Entangled: Teen via Netgalley and this is my honest review.