This book was a departure from Tamora Pierce's usual badass heroine, but was still excellent. She expanded on her well-known Tortall universe with the backstory of Numair (from the Immortals series) Varice, and Orzone ([b:Emperor Mage|858668|Emperor Mage (Immortals, #3)|Tamora Pierce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271798899s/858668.jpg|3094151]), whose backstories are further developed into complex characters.

Outside of that, the world that Pierce builds is strong and engaging, drawing you in and holding you in as she grows the story of people and their stories at school into a much deeper, more dangerous mystery, set around a character who shows strong empathy to many different characters who aren't granted empathy by many others.

I'm interested to see if Pierce's strong female heroine will make an appearance somewhere down the line, but Numair (nee Aram Draper) may fill the role of an atypical male heroine. We shall see.