I enjoyed the magic system, I enjoyed the characters, and I enjoyed the plot. Something about the writing made me feel a little thrown off. At times it felt basic and unsure of itself. The feature of our main character being a teen but also in the college program also felt a little odd at times in how it was handled and discussed. Having taken college classes in person while a teenager, it was a very specific experience and it was odd how youthful all the mentioned students were. But a book not feeling super realistic has never ruined it for me. Just felt a little odd and not as full as I wanted at times.

The topics brought forward in this book were important and handled in an interesting and sensitive way. I do think some people might not realize what the big reveal at the end about the main character was about. But if you know you know and it was very clear to me. I appreciated that painful details were not elaborated on even if I think it could have been spelled out a little more for those in the back.

Overall a good book that I'm interested to read the next installment of. I did pick this up after asking people for a "fun fantasy with POC characters where racial trauma and pain isn't a defining feature of the story"... this book should not have been recommended in response to that query. So that may be something other readers might want to know heading into this.