I received this book as a gift and was skeptical at first since I’m usually not a fan of YA books or of fantasy novels set in real cities. However this was much more complex and rich than most YA books and was a great read that left me wishing that the rest of the series was already out. I hope Ms. Mathewson writes quickly, can’t wait for the next one! The plot is intriguing, the characters surprising and the world building well done.

2.5 stars from me. I really enjoyed the premise and ideas in this book, but not so much the execution. The world building is intricate and complex, but to the point that too much dialogue between the characters is exclusively there to explain what is going on to the reader (through the proxy of the main character, who I just could not like…). It is almost as if there was no trust that the plot would develop with clarity without these long scripts, which always felt kind of unnatural. I was also half-way to DNFing if one more side character was introduced by the time I was 60% through. These are all stylistic preferences of mine, but overall I found this book underwhelming.