This was a journey! I didn't expect it to remind me so much of Arrows of the Queen, but there are so many parallels that I kept noticing. I'm not going to go into great detail about it, but one major thing I noticed that is consistent across both are pacing and passage of time issues. This book especially suffered from pacing issues. It was dense at times and took me way longer to read it than it should have.
It was like-- slow slow slow- hey, four years has passed- slow slow slow- by the way, six years has passed!- then it got really fast all of a sudden. It was very detailed, and while I didn't oppose such detail, it did not help the pacing problems at all. Someone might disagree with me on this, but this was my experience.
That being said, I did enjoy this book for the most part. There is some really interesting worldbuilding, and the characters are pretty cool, although you might have to suspend your disbelief a few times in regards to the main character. The main topic of this book is animals, and animal interactions with humans, how humans cage and try to tame animals at the cost of their nature. It brings up the moral debate about whether animals should be manipulated by humans, and the subject of human nature vs. animal nature. I found it to be quite interesting.

You have to wait a while for the story to get moving, but once it starts it doesn’t stop.

“When Elin watched the honeybees or other creatures in the wild, when she observed the diversity of their life cycles and the astounding precision of their habits, there were times when she felt herself become a prick of light in the vastness of the night sky, times when all living things, people, beasts and insects, dwindled to equal points of light twinkling in the darkness.”
― Nahoko Uehashi, The Beast Player

Who doesn't love a good orphan story and the journey to education and realization of their life's purpose? The characters are endearing and captivating and the story is so well written it just pulls you right in. You root for the hero and I simply enjoyed the story of her life.

This was a great library find.

I think everyone can enjoy this simple story and will be captivated by this light novel with elements of magical realism.

A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Incredible story about the life of a young woman who just wanted to understand the animals around her. Elin's story begins as a young girl who is forced to watch her mother die and taken away from the only family she knows. As her knowledge grows, her place in her community becomes more complex causing her to be put in a difficult place between the beasts and the humans. I absolutely loved how pure Elin's relationship was with the animals in her care. Even as her home and caregivers change, her drive to learn from the animals and care for them seems to increase.

I will absolutely be getting a copy to keep in my classroom to share with students.

This book was amazing even if it did take awhile to get through it the translation of the original writing is so well done I really think she conveyed it so well. I really loved the characters especially Elin she is so unique I don't think I have come across many characters like her she does what she believes in and is very interesting to read about she is a bit hard to describe. The beasts as well as the other characters that surround them are interesting every character is well fleshed out there are no one dimensional characters to be seen. The plot was very good it started out with a girl who admired what her mother did only for things to happen and for Elin to end up somewhere else where the plot really takes off the story just gets better from there it was like reading a studio ghibli film this would make an amazing animated film. I loved this book so much I will reading the next one soon.