This novel tapped into absolutely every internal struggle I have with modern discussions of liberation and revolution, namely: what exactly would either look like? When the only framework we've known and understood for centuries is one that had once enslaved us and continues to beat us down post-aboliton, can we conceptualize what it means to free ourselves without falling into the trap of replicating that structure against our own people? When we fight for our place at the table, are we fighting to destroy it, or are we fighting merely to be acknowledged by those already seated? All of these questions complicate Sigourney Rose's quest for revenge and redemption (question mark on the redemption there) in this novel set on a Caribbean-inspired island chain where the natives have been enslaved by white invaders from the North. Sigourney, a native woman whose family had managed to buy their freedom a few generations before her birth, is the sole survivor of a massacre against her family enacted by nobles threatened by her family's rising status. Sigourney's revenge centers around seizing the regency for herself, an enticing narrative that unfortunately gets pushed aside for a who-dunnit murder mystery that circles around itself for the vast majority of the novel. However, the ending more than makes up for this minor drag in what was a truly compelling read.