I had so much hope for this book. Even till the last page. I was told this would be a whole new world type of fantasy and it was. But... I wasn't impressed.

I've seen a lot of people praising the worldbuilding in this and I have to wonder if we were reading the same book. The setting was interesting, I won't dispute that. It just wasn't carried out very well. Which was my biggest problem. I never thought I'd say this but this book needed a lot more discriptions in it. Even at the end of the book I still had no idea what their wings looked like. If we go by the cover then that doesn't really make much sense for the kind of maneuvers they were pulling off in the book. And even the flying itself is confusing. It is implied at various points that you can tell what kind of winds are present, how strong they are and even what direction they are headed. It is even mentioned at some point that flying at night is dangerous because you can't see the winds. So they can... see wind?

Another thing is the City itself. It made no sense and the author didn't even try to explain anything. It was like we're just supposed to know how the towers work and look like. And how does everyone survive? They have apples and farms but it's never explained how they even have anything to grow these plants on. And the only homes/tiers explained makes it seem like a tier is small enough to support only one family but how is there even space for farms? And they even have honey. How? There is a mention of rainwater but how exactly do they still get rain if the clouds are below them?

Even though we spend a good deal of time in the spire I still have no idea how everything works and looks like. The more information is given the more confused I get. It's the highest tower but somehow people can see both the council people at the top and the wingbeaters at the bottom. But they still can't see what's below the wingbeaters? And coming to the wingbeaters, do they just stand around all day flapping giant wings to make enough wind for the entire spire??

I have so many questions. The worldbuilding needs so much work.

Moving away from that, let's come to the story. I was expecting some nasty and dark secrets but what I got was... fine I guess. The secret of Nat's father was very underwhelming. The secrets of the Singers were so underwhelming that I was wondering why they were secrets at all.

Finally, I had a problem with our main character Kirit. I don't even know what to say about her. Her character was, I don't know, just all over the place. How she got the attention of the Singers in the first place was just stupid. Why the hell was she outside during migrations? It says she wanted to get a last look at her mother? but she doesn't come off as being that sentimental of a person in the rest of the book. In the beginning she has these big dreams of becoming a trader but out of nowhere she changes her mind and is suddenly all about protecting the city and it's secrets. She has a shouting power but at no point does it get any important use. And where it does get its use doesn't even make sense. What was she even trying to do? Kill everyone?
Kirit is apparently a very special person. Normal people take years, since childhood, before they become real singers but she does it in just months. It took Sellis a year to move around blindfolded but it only takes her a day or so (unless I'm mistaken). It's taken generations for people to get even a few people to stand up to the singers but it takes Kirit the duration of one fight for everyone to realise the oppression of the singers. Everyone who tried before was just blinded by tradition.

Honestly I think Kirit is an idiot or not thought out very well. She makes the most stupid decisions that make absolutely no sense but that the plot demands it. Like staying out during a sky mouth migration. Like flying illegally to the spire for no obvious reason except anger.

I really wanted this to be amazing. The completely original setting was so promising. Unfortunately it didn't work for me.