I love this series but I am so disappointed. 

For me, this novella feels out of place in the Singing Hills cycle. It touches on some themes that have woven throughout the series – memory, especially – but not in ways that felt new, interesting, or on the level of depth of the other novellas (all of which I’ve rated 4 or 5 stars). Past instalments have had intense political manoeuvring and thoughtful feminist themes and I found none of that here. The pacing also felt off – a few too many things squished into novella length, perhaps – and the abrupt near-complete shift in tone in the middle of the book really didn’t work for me. 

What did work for me? I love Cleric Chih as a character based on the rest of the series so inevitably I enjoyed reconnecting with them in this newest novella. They are decidedly out of character here, though the reasons for that do become clear and make sense toward the end. 

This works as a standalone, but if you’ve been at all curious about this cycle I would not suggest starting here. I can acknowledge that a lot of my disappointment with this book is rooted in having so loved the prior ones, but ultimately I do think that even if this was a total standalone and I had no prior familiarity with the world/characters, this still wouldn't have worked for me. 

Content warnings: murder, violence, death, gore, blood, cannibalism (of sorts), forcible confinement, sexism/misogyny