I did a dumb thing and read Heir before this. I did not know it was a sequel. Oops. As such I know things one normally doesn’t know when starting this series. But—a benefit of reading it all backwards is that I trust Sabaa Tahir enough to struggle through some YA book nonsense. I say nonsense lovingly, I liked this book a lot but it’s YA and behaves like YA, even though it does tackle some really dark topics. But that’s why it’s not quite five stars even though the ending was phenomenal. One more thing: the perspective changes every single chapter. It’s a difficult thing to pull off I feel and it works well but only after some chapters. Until then it’s almost a bit annoying as it pulls you out of the story. Once the web tightens and the stakes rise though… well. Damn. And the ending—GOD. It does its job so well. I just want to jump straight into the next book.

Für mich lest sich das leider etwas krampfig. Ich konnte mich leider nicht mit dem Schreibstil und den Protagonisten anfreunden, somit habe ich bei 30% abgebrochen.

hab das tatsächlich schonmal vor einigen jahren gelesen, war trotzdem voll gut! nächster teil wir gelesen

i haven't been this sucked into a fantasy for a long time; zero complaints because this was actually perfect — sabaa tahir has a way of writing her chapters in a way that at the end of every pov there's a kind of mini cliffhanger, which makes you just neeed to keep reading, only to get just as sucked in to the other mc's pov; and all this in an endless cycle which makes it sooo fun

<b>THIS IS AS GOOD AS EVERYONE ALWAYS SAYS IT IS.</b> Oh my god, I just didn't want to put it down. I was hoping to like it due to the praise it gets, but as I was reading it, I found myself enjoying even the dark parts, which is rare. There is always something going on, and it's fantastic. The writing is phenomenal, descriptive but not to the point where it's overdone. The worldbuilding is probably my favourite thing, so unique and interesting! This book made me feel every emotion, and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series.