The whole time I was reading this, I was thinking this has to be a debut novel. The ideas are good, but the execution not so much. It felt like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. The cruel parts are just thrown in there with the good parts, and there’s no transition and no exploration of it. I think the ending wrapped it up decently (not great but decent), but if I hadn’t been so enamored with the idea of the story, I would’ve DNF’d it a quarter of the way in. I spent most of this book either bored or frustrated. I feel like the ending was left open on purpose so that a second book can be written. It hinted at two romances but never followed through with either. We don’t see the one character get a redemption arc that is sort of foreshadowed. Without the detailed gore-filled bits, this would’ve been a cute adventure story. As is, it’s sort of a mashup of cute magical adventure and trauma-giving horror scenes.