Really sad to give up on this one, as I love the premise, but by the end of the first chapter, it was a slog; by chapter 3, I gave up completely. The characterization and lore-building was rather clumsy, but I would have stuck with it longer if the prose weren't so poorly-crafted at the paragraph level. The author used the same structure for what felt like 90% of their sentences, so the prose had no rhythm or flow to it whatsoever.