The best way to describe this is... just ok. It does a lot of great things, I loved the atmosphere and the world building we did get from it. Like the world felt big and whole even if we didn't see all of it. And you really felt sucked into the depressing collapsing empire vibes. The little bit of Sapphic love we get towards the end is nice, just a shame it falls into a trope that won't be named for spoilers. And Evelyn is a very interesting point of view, if things do get a little confusing towards the end with her.

However, I felt that the characters fell a little flat for me and certain key plot reveals just didn't land the way they should have. I felt like I should've been in shock and awe, but instead I was just confused as to how we got to point A to point B. Things should be left unknown in books like this, but this one leaves things almost too open for my taste.

It is also worth mentioning that I almost DNF'd this book towards the beginning just because I could not be invested in the story. I was about 50 pages or less in, and I struggled to be invested in the plot. There were interesting bits, but none of those bits really caught me. It wasn't until I hit the 50% mark that I just decided to finish it because it was short and I thought why not.

Wow I actually really enjoyed this! Fast paced and I was interested the entire time. I wish this was a full length novel because I would've given it 5 stars if that were the case. I would have loved to see more character development and world building and more background information. I enjoyed this nonetheless but it left me wanting more and curious.