McKillip's writing always sucks me in so completely. She has such beautiful turns of phrase—not just in the sentences on their own, but also how some paragraphs follow the same rhythm, or how she uses repetition to emphasize something. Sometimes I find myself distracted from the actual story she's telling because I'm too busy admiring the way she tells it.

Despite how short this book is, McKillip still managed to weave a complete story. It follows the standard narrative beats of a quest plotline, with a cnite (the intentional misspellings of words we know takes some getting used to, I'll admit) going on a quest to save a Damsen in distress, but McKillip quickly subverts it. There are no battles, no beasts to be slain, just different characters he encounters on his journey. The conclusion is what I've come to expect from McKillip, and all in all this did not disappoint.