This is the first I’ve read from Hannah Kaner. Nothing major to complain about. Not super engaging but also only made me roll my eyes a couple of times.
Relationships felt very flat. Mostly because all the emotional backstory was told to us rather than shown. For example, Kissen’s childhood and the bond she has with the deaf archivist and the tinker prosthesis maker is a driving force for the responsibility she feels for Inara, but the reader just has to accept that she feels responsible because we didn’t experience the pain and heartache with her. Similarly, when we are introduced to Elogast and Arren (the king), we are told that something important happened, but we don’t feel it. Same goes for Inara and her mother.
Two of Kissen’s relationships did land for me; the one’s we got to watch her build with Inara and Elogast. I also appreciated the group dynamics as they were all making their way into the forbidden city with the group of pioneers (or haji?).
The world setting was somewhat interesting, but I get the impression that the author wanted us to be impressed by how Kissen outsmarts the gods. I wish I could be, but since I don’t know the “rules” of the world, when she scrapes by with just the right tool for the job all I can do is try to add that to the list of things I’m learning about the world. I can’t be pleased with myself for figuring out what she was going to do because there was no way for me to know what the options were.
The gods themselves seem fickle to me. And yeah, that was probably the point. Still, doesn’t create for compelling narrative. I didn’t care if Inara’s jackalope lived or died. Ok, actually once it started lying to the main characters I wanted it to die. But even that seems like an odd choice for the author to make. Does she really want me to hate the reason the main characters are going on this journey? I guess it does put me in the same headspace as Kissen.