At the start of this book, I was like “hm, I wonder what makes this grimdark fantasy!”. Y’all. This is grimdark for sure—if you’re even a little unsure if you want to read something darker, don’t pick up this book, because some of these visuals will never leave my brain. It follows Rin, who tests into a war college and has an odd connection to the gods. 

Did I enjoy this book? Yes I did. I think Kuang is an incredibly talented writer, and the stories she weaves are so engaging. I’d want to read anything she writes—but I gotta say, this got to be a little too much for me by the end. The fact that many of the things described in the book actually happened in real life makes it infinitely worse, and I am horrified and disgusted and so so sad that this is the world we live in.

I am very interested to see where the story goes from here, and I want to consume more of Kuang’s writing because I think she just an unbelievable talent—but we’ll see if I can stomach actually continuing.