I wanted to like this book so badly, but the characters had no personalities and no arcs where they developed in any meaningful way. A series of events simply occurred with beautiful descriptions and interesting world building thrown in. The best part of the story was the author's note where she described her influences and research as well as her intentions for the story. Basically, she fell in love with African mythology, culture, and history, so she threw as much of that in as possible. That decision could have been an excellent one had the characters not been neglected in the process. I would also argue that the ton of world building incorporated into the book wasn't fully developed either. It was just a series of very interesting concepts that didn't get fully explored. That might change in the sequel, but I'm not invested in the characters enough to find out.