Thank you, Hati and Bindery Books for making this ARC freely available via NetGalley.

DNF at 26%. I love reading fantasy. I especially love finding good fantasy that doesn't just rely on European culture and mythology. I thought this book would be so enjoyable for me, but the more I read, the more confused I became about the various characters and all the invented terminology. If I had been more engaged, I would have considered re-reading from the beginning, but early on my motivation to read it was waning until I finally decided to stop. If I change my mind, I will update my review.

This book was so slow for me that I lost interest several times. I don't know if it's just not the book for me right now or if it's the book in general. I feel there was a LOT going on but also more telling and less showing. I am not typically a big fan of that.

I will try it again though once it's out and in my library.

(I did not post this review publicly)

I love the concept of this book but have too many other things I have to focus on it now. I’m sure the confrontation between the three main characters will be explosive. I ran out the clock on this once and I don’t know if that will work again. I do have this book (and House of Frank) preordered because I want to support the new Bindery books coming out in October. I won a digital copy of Strange Beasts (and might buy a physical copy too) and I am getting Inferno’s Heir through Patreon. Thank you Bindery Books, Fantasy and Frens, Zoranne Host and S. Hati for a chance to read this before publication date. If I can finish it before the book archives, I will update my feedback.

(3.5) I enjoyed the book overall, even though it got off to a pretty slow start. I found the constant references to the fire a bit grating- it felt very tell-don't-show, as we could have known it was always on our narrators' minds without the explicit references to it throughout. The final reveal felt a bit lacking as a result because it had been built up so much. I liked Zain from the start, Iravan grew on me, but I didn't care about Anastasia until the last few chapters. I think that was in part because the figurative language in her chapters felt over the top and clumsy (the razor wool comes to mind), especially in the middle of some really charged conversations and scenes. My favorite character was probably Bilal or Kanak (Kanak!<3). I thought the magic system was really interesting, especially the way that the science seemed interwoven with faith, and that kept me going to finish the book. It broke my brain trying to picture the sky and the rain, but in a good way. The setting was interesting, and I liked the references to the characters moving through different parts of the city. It was confusing at first, but it felt more alive by the end because there was a lot to keep track of.

I received this book as an ARC. And I absolutely loved every minute of it.

I found this story to be fascinating and engaging. It focuses on 3 POVs and spends a good amount of time getting the reader into each mindset and understanding of the choices each POV takes. I don’t typically like multiple POVs but think they were well done and necessary for the story.

I liked the fast-paced nature of the book and really enjoyed the twists and turns along the way!

4.5 stars 🌟

In this standalone climate fantasy, three rivals—Zain, Iravan, and Anastasia—whose lives are intertwined race to find a magical reserve that could save everyone and their city from total destruction.

This is a solid debut. As someone who feels strongly towards the environment and has worked on climate action projects, I was instantly hooked with its premise. The book’s events act as a glaring metaphor and a parallel to our current reality. It’s fast-paced, emotional, and compelling.

I suppose this is also a character-driven story, but the characters, however, felt a bit off to me. Maybe I wasn’t able to connect with them, or the POVs slightly threw me off, or I didn’t manage to firmly string together their connections with the other characters.

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this and would highly recommend it to others. This was my first climate fantasy book and I’m so happy this was the book that introduced me to the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books for the ARC! :>

Ok so I just think this book is not for me, I was really struggling with information overload and the further into the book I got the more confused I was getting. For me I like the author to either introduce the characters or the world building but too much was happening. I kind of grasped the setting and was getting my head round the world but character after character kept appearing and that was just one POV. The writing was great though, I could really feel the desperation and downtrodden atmosphere through the pages. If you like climate fantasy in a rich setting/world with many characters and multi pov then give this book a try

Ok wow. Just wow. This was actually really great which I honestly didn’t really expect? I hadn’t read much about it before and I guess I should go in blind more often to be pleasantly surprised ❤️

A dark and gritty fantasy, in all the best ways! I absolutely loved the world that this story took place in. The setting was raw and unexpected, drawing me right into the action. Although I wish I would have been able to connect more with the characters as I feel we barely got to scrape the surface, this was an overall great read.

I’m very impressed by this debut novel and can’t wait to read more books by S. Hati in the future!
A special thanks to Bindery Books for bringing these books to life and for sharing an ARC with me in exchange for an honest review!

an impressive and compelling climate fantasy mixed with politics and a multi-pov narrative!!!

lots of tension and emotion, an impressive welding of characters and motivations - they’re messy and complicated, but the culmination of their efforts is so cool. everything leads up to a very dramatic moment, and is fuelled by the hate and desire for calor, making for some very intriguing moments and movements within the world!

with the characters all having such vastly different backstories it meant that they all brought something different to the story, especially with how they view power and money

a powerful and gut-punching climate fantasy highly focusing on the misuse of power and the destruction it can bring!

DNF. The quick chapters that shift POVs between 2+ characters made it difficult to find an entry into the story and to follow it consistently. Besides the dialogue—which felt unnaturally forced—the writing was really beautiful, and I do hope to borrow a hard copy after it is published.

Soft DNF. Lost interest in the story at some point early on and I just couldn't connect to the story or the characters enough to care about them. The writing was beautiful and I could tell that I lot of time and care went into crafting this story. I do plan on continuing this physically after its release to see if I can get back into it. Beautiful cover as well.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for this ARC. I love this book! An interesting and thrilling climate fantasy. Loved the tone of the novel and was completely hooked by 50%. Congratulations to S. Hati for her debut novel.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery Books for a copy of an eARC. Wow! This is a climate fantasy and it was terrifying. How many generations away are we from a global climate tragedy that finally wipes us out? Not only that but the hoarding of unsustainable resources is too realistic ugh.

I loved the prose. I can't believe this is the author's debut. I felt smarter after reading this 😂

I had trouble connecting with the characters during the first half of the book. The climate crisis was intriguing and the world building was great, but I just didn't really care about our 3 MCs until about half way through and I can't explain why. But I'm so glad I gave it time because by the halfway point I was here for all 3 of them. I think this is a book I would enjoy even more on a reread since I have a much better understanding of the world and the characters now.

Overall, so excited for my print copy to come in the mail this October.

My my, what a captivating little book we have here!

S. Hati introduces a magnificient world-building, simple enough to focus on one city, yet complex enough in political issues and history. It's equally magical and scientifical, charming in this connection and surprising in its intelligence. The author settles on the story that lately is not so popular – one that is driven by actual sotry, and the characters are just a part of a bigger picture. Do not be fooled, it doesn't equal they are flat or uninteresting, quite the opposite actually. But given so different perspectives it feels like all the characters are important, even those from the background, as they all work towards the same goal. And it works greatly. It evokes emotions, it drives your interest, while simultaneously providing clever commentary over discussed topics.

I love finding niché fantasy books that end up being a real treasure, and I'm glad to state that Hati's one definitely belongs among them. Amazing!

In a city on the brink of destruction where blood rains from the sky, a thief, a slumlord, and an heiress race to find a hidden cache of magical fuel in a quest for power and to save their home.

This fast-paced, standalone, Asian-inspired climate fantasy is filled with political intrigue and deception. While this is a story about the consequences of climate change and of colonialism, portraited both from the perspective of the colonizer as well as the colonized, it is also a story about loneliness, revenge, redemption, and love.

While I struggled to get into the different POVs initially, I was soon locked in, and S. Hati’s beautiful writing made it hard to put down. Overall, a wonderful debut and an emotional and thrilling read.

Thank you to Bindery and NetGalley for issuing me with a copy of this ARC.

i LOVED this dark and gripping take on climate fantasy. the characters working together in a seamless way, and the idea of calor as a powering force and what people will do to access it had me hooked.

Unfortnautely this is a DNF for me at 25%, I really tried to get into this as the concept really intrigued me but sadly I just could not get a feel for the characters or the setting and I the plot wasn’t strong enough for me to keep reading.

Even though I personally did not love he book, my boyfriend read it on my kindle after I did and loved it so we are adding it to my school's library even though, I did not really like it.

Can Zain, a young woman trying survive the slums, Iravan, a slumlord, and Anastasia, the colonizer's successor, reconcile their shared traumatic event of a decade ago while desperately trying to save their city's future from the deadly forces of a fractured climate?

The premise of this is what stands out: the thematic blending of colonization, resource extraction, power, and the subsequent consequences in the form of climate disaster (the sky literally bleeds) is unique and really drove the story forward. These themes, however, make this a bleak read. While the world is described vividly, the plot reveals took a bit too long for my taste, so I found this hard to follow and/or too slow paced at times. Likewise for the character reveals: it took awhile for me to understand everyone’s motives and I didn’t completely connect with anyone. The pace does pick up at the halfway mark, and the climax is action packed. All is revealed at the end, which made for a satisfying conclusion that included that added element of hope.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.