3.5 out of 5 stars.

i liked it.

allison saft's is an amazing writer. it's lovely and descriptive without being too heavy handed. i was a bit wary at first but it did end up liking how she explored religious persecution and xenophobia and how it impacted the characters and their motivations. the worldbuilding is rich, a lot of it leave the reader with unanswered questions but allison saft still make it work because it make the setting feel lived in (if that make sense.). 

as for the story itself, well, as we approached the end, i was feeling bored and restless. it is very character driven and we spend a lot of time with them doing internal work while the external events are meant to lead us to the hunt but we see/experience very little of it, just bits here and here and the hunt ends up being genuinely speed through and it is a little disappointing. that aside, i still a lot of question left : why do we need to kill the hala? why is it evil? is it really the last of its kind?

because it was originally a fullmetal alchemist fic, i thought the hala was the result of magaret's mother magnus opus since it is extremely implied that she tried to resurrect the brother, and the result of that transmutation just created the hala, like in fma 2003 where human transmutation would create homonculuses. idk maybe i'm just rambling. that part if the story felt rich but unexplored and dissastifying.

i would definitively recommend it to other people as a slow-burn romance with some element of fantasy.