I need to come back & write out my thoughts on this. I have ✨feelings✨ about this one

(11/15/21) Full Thoughts:
Content warnings: emotional abuse, child abuse, whipping of a young child, girl on girl hate, mentions of the threat of rape, gaslighting

Rep: queer side characters, sapphic side relationship, male/male side relationship, nonbinary rep

Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
I mainly read this as an audiobook (but I would have the book with me so that I could tab & reread sections when I would get confused about what was going on) & I would recommend to read it like that! The writing style that the author uses sometimes breaks the Fourth Wall when Vanja “talks” to the reader with snarky commentary. (This is gonna sound kind of odd, but I think if you like/liked/loved the new Cruella movie with Emma Stone, I really think you’ll like this!)

Outside of Vanja’s predicament that she finds herself in with trying to Right her Wrongs, there are other political plot lines that are happening that Vanja finds herself interwoven with (because of the identity that she’s stolen) that were going on in the background that is forced to the front of the book (if that makes sense) & it felt kind of oddly placed? Not that they weren’t interesting or compelling being that it was also tied to the magic system of this world, but it would just kind of drag me out of Vanja’s PERSONAL story/struggle(s) that when they popped up I would be like “what? Why are we paying attention to this?” And while it EVENTUALLY tied in with Vanja’s struggle, I still felt like we could have been dealing with something else than the predicament/issue that we deal with.

Pros:
1. I loved the lore, the gods/goddesses & where they get their magic from and how they were created , in a sense from people/societies/cultures

2. I liked how there were queer characters and even trans people! We never meet any trans characters (explicitly at least), but they aren’t shunned from society, or seen in a negative lite. Vanja isn’t queer, but two other people of our main cast are queer & it was good to see it

3. One of my absolutely favorite things about this book was seeing the messiness of human beings within themselves in relation to their upbringing, of being hurt, angry, taken advantage of, disregarded, or of wanting to be seen. And then we see how all of these things influenced character dynamics/relationships. Vanja was put thru some SERIOUS messed up situations, predicaments, toxic friendships and toxic family relationships & it really had negative affects on how Vanja sees herself, her self worth, trust, love, and friendship. It was a little heartbreaking to see/read what she went thru from the people around her or damage that she was bringing onto herself.

4. Ragne. She was my ABSOLUTELY FAVORITE CHARACTER.

Gripes:
I don’t think I have any?

The romance(s):
Vanja & Emeric had SUCH good banter between the two of them. They had the rivals-to-lovers dynamic that some of us all love. AND IT IS SUCH A SLOW BURN. Like literally. A slow burn.

There IS a sapphic relationship that blooms in this one, and while I’m usually one to state any and all relationships in my book reviews, I’ma keep a closed lip on this one. But I will say that it is between two VERY important characters in this AND IT WAS SO CUTE