This book has some really great descriptions, is really creative and has a magical feel and then some actual magic. You are never sure if what is happening is really happening or just kind of.a metaphor. (Writing this while falling asleep so not thinking of the best way to describe it.) Set in communist Romania, there are some brutal scenes, and just a tense Big Brother thread throughout. No one is particularly likeable, but that is also very much not their fault. I just wish I felt a bit more connected to them. It made it so you didn’t feel the full impact of what was happening, I kind of wanted a little more of everything. I feel like it would have been nice to stay in certain scenes a little longer just to get more invested. It was a fast read and I liked it, but there was something missing for me. I think it was also the lack of straightforwardness in the writing style, which was a choice and done well, but just not my favourite thing.  Well done book though otherwise.