What an amazing read to conclude 2023!

The best parts were the worldbuilding and the characters. The worldbuilding is so impressive; Rivers Solomon created a cohesive society on Matilda with different dialects, cultural rules, food and lore. In addition to this realistic society, we have layered and complex characters. Aster and the way she sees the world are fascinating. Theo and Aster allow the author to tackle neurodivergence and gender nonconformity. I usually don’t like POV switches (from the first person to the third), and I’m still not a fan, but I liked the other POVs we got because they informed the characters well.

It’s a bleak story because it deals with racism, oppression, slavery and graphic violence, but there are sweet moments between Aster and Theo and Aster and Giselle.

The pacing was a little choppy, some parts escalated quickly, and some were significantly slower. These impacted my experience, but not so much that it bothered me. The ending though! That aspect did bother me. After the last chapter, I still wanted to know more about Aster and Theo’s stories. There is no epilogue, and I like to have most of my questions answered, so the ending felt unsatisfactory to me. 

This book is a must-read!