So much of this book just fell flat for me. It especially lost me when it gruesomely described the murder of the little, adorable spiny beast. I also would happily go several days without reading another simile (especially one that makes me go “…huh?” like almost all of the ones in this book).

Soooo many content warnings for this book, but especially the bulimia, which she just…gets over when someone tells her to stop? Unrealistic, even for a clumsy Russian-adjacent fairy tale.

Also, all the Yehuli-bashing read more like anti-semitism than anything else. Just because the main love interest is Yehuli doesn’t really make it okay.

Read the Winternight trilogy or some Naomi Novik instead.