this was such a cute story!!!!!! somehow giving both cottagecore lesbians & industrial revolution ye-olde vibes. 
shesheshen was such a delight to read about. lowkey love how she struggled with human civilisation & narrated weird ass shit humans do 💀 i also liked her formal way of speaking, it was super endearing. homily was such a girlboss too! esp in the ending! i was worried for where she was going but thank god this book had a happy ending (kind of... depends how u look at it).
i also loved the ridiculous amount of rep. seamless nonbinary characters? check. unapologetic sapphic love? check. lovely atmosphere? check. super interesting premise? check. super funny dialogue? check. unpredictable story that kept me (mostly) gripped? check! but, as much as i had fun reading this, i do find there are a couple of things holding me back from adoring this story.
a) the explanations of how the "wyrms" work was super hard for me to visualise & grasp. ive read fantasy & supernatural books before, but i found it incredibly difficult to actually understand what was trying to be depicted. like i could never tell what shesheshen really looked like? that may have been the point, idk. all i know is i had no idea how to picture her form. i kind of imagined her like oobleck, where she hardens up when she wants & is liquid at other times. 
b) the "plot twist" that hits you like 2/3s into the book came out of nowhere. im either a super observant reader or a complete blubbering idiot. but i did not see this coming. i was looking for something like what happened, as i just had a gut feeling there'd be a "plot twist" surrounding the mythicality of this book but what actually happened felt like it came out of left field. honestly i dont think i liked it? like i liked how the story was prior, and the plot twist kinda fell flat for me
c) it takes WAY too long for shit to start getting good. like i was only properly interested like. >50% into this. the beginning either needed more worldbuilding or idk something else because it took a while for this to get going.
d) i kinda was attached to shesheshen but i also kind of... didnt care about any of the characters. they all kind of felt one-dimensional, esp homily's family. i also think homily herself was a tad one-dimensional which sucked because i really liked her set-up!!! there was so much more that couldve been done with her!!!
e) the ending was weird??? it felt like an epilogue (hah... get it...) but idk it felt unecessary!! it shouldve been literally just the last chapter or something similar. it was a cute ending i will admit, but it also just made the pacing slam to a halt, from an adventure-esque story to a slice of life story.
this book had so much going for it & i so desperately wanted to love it!! like bro theres a (lowkey) ace relationship, lesbian love where one person is (yet again, lowkey) genderfluid, super interesting plot, classic "monster learns to love" trope that i adore!! i just found with all the positives this book has going for it, such as its humour & intriguing plot, it is a letdown in some other places </3
i still would say i liked this book! i didnt hate it, not at all! it just wasnt something i loved, and you know what? thats ok.