"Black tinged the edges of her vision—black, and then scarlet. An awful rage filled her, consumed her thoughts entirely. She needed revenge like she needed to breathe."

The Good
I love Rin. I love her rage, I love her desperation, I love her pain and her courage. Most of all I love her selfishness, desire for power and pride. I like how real the struggles felt. Rin doesn't always win, she had to work hard and even then she may fail. She's not perfect or just. She feels like a real human being. I loved her fear as well. It was good to see a heroine who doesn't just jump in and be brave.
Rin's need for praise from those she admired was such an interesting character point. It motivated her more than even her will to live. The world building is insane but i love it. I like that Kuang took the time to have Rin explore the world after very high stress events. It's also a great way to give story exposition without it being boring or just fed to us through character conversations. The fighting was well written. Sometimes authors try to write blow by blow and it annoys me as someone with mild aphantasia. I liked the depiction of war and politics. I enjoy shows like this but haven't read any books like it. Altan: Yeah I hated him. But he's a great comparison to Rin because she's used to losing and struggling and he isn't and it's driving him mad. He desires praise and power just as much as Rin does but it's crushing him. Learning his past was interesting and it made me empathize with him. Nezha: I of course hated until him and Rin became friends. I wish their bond had been built better to understand Rin's intense reactions to him.


The Bad
Sometimes time is hard to understand. Suddenly it's stated months, seasons, or years have passed and it doesn't feel like it.
The relationships were sometimes hard to understand in this book. Sometimes I wish more time was spent on building connections between characters instead of world building. Certain scenes in the beginning of the book could have been trimmed to do so. So many characters are terribly frustrating it irked me so bad. I understood why they were characterized like that but it felt like they were either in friend mode or antagonistic mode with no inbetween. Even Nezha went from actively trying to end her life to them being friends. There was no between period to deal with that nuance. (I do not count the mess hall conversation) There was a pacing, not issue, but rhythm I did not like. Something big would happen and then long drawn out chapters that while I understood their purpose I wanted them to be shorter. I understand war is not just the big events but the time in-between and development was necessary but especially the last 25% I wanted to reach a conclusion. These books are large and that is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The Rating
I give this book a 5/5