I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I think it tired and had a cool premise, but I ultimately just felt bored with the main character Yeeran and felt Lettle was annoying but otherwise enjoyed her and actually found her interesting.

I often found myself asking the question "why should I care about any of this?"

I found the lore behind the drums lacking. I wish we learned a lot more about the connection between

the animals that the fae bind with to gain their magical powers. I forget the name and am not going to look it up (it was similar to the blue people avatar but if their connections with the animal tied their lives together, so if one dies the other dies). This dynamic was by far the most interesting part of the book to me besides the idea of some hidden fae society that has not been seen for centuries. Another disappointment is that apparently the long extinct humans in this world were more powerful because they were the ultimate magic users. Usually fantasy books make humans weaksauce (as they should tbh) so this was met with disappointment for me, and then compounded when I find out they don't exist anymore to delve deeper into that.

I do wish that I liked this book, especially with how beautiful the cover is. The idea for the main plot is interesting and so is the setting and even some of the characters, but I never felt like it clicked or captivated me. It is hard to describe a book as being "bad" when I am rating it subjectively on its ability to engage me as it can be difficult to put into words. I think this book is still worth a try reading because there are so many people that do enjoy it, but maybe go into it with low expectations. 

Still better than House of Flame and Shadow though lmao