I was excited for this book, but it was just not good. It is written in an extremely bland style where everyone's motivations and emotions are just laid out for you in a list, character relationships feel stilted and weird, and the whole thing reads very immature to me. I was genuinely shocked at the reveal that the main character is 25. The plots within plots are not interesting

(I kept forgetting she was even working for the other group until someone else brought it up),

and every character is exactly who they appear to be upon first meeting so none of the court intrigue is all that intriguing. A lot of plots feel like they get dropped as soon as they might complicate anything for anyone important.

The descriptions of living under occupation are visceral and feel "real" but the understanding of how empire works and what it needs to sustain itself is just not there. The way the Imperator as an institution is characterized and the description of how this empire supposedly runs are insulting to the reader.