I picked this up based solely on the recommendations of some random other book readers on Twitter. I'm not kidding. It hadn't even come out yet, and people were in love with this book, and the author seemed like a super-fun person, so I ordered it.
It took me a while to read, through no fault of the story or the writing, but because the political climate of the world has been insane, and I haven't had any attention span to read at all. Real-world burn-out, I guess.
But, I am very glad that I read this. It's something I may not have picked up without those random recommendations, even though it's a similar genre style to what I've been reading for the last couple of years.
It's a fantasy world, in a not-quite dystopian land where the rest of the country/continent/land is controlled by a central, and of course richer, city and monarch system. The outlying regions are looked down on, some in a way that parallels things in our current world, and there are racial/area divides everywhere to be seen.
It's definitely an attention-grabbing story, written from the perspectives of two main characters, who share the narration duties chapter by chapter. They're operating at cross purposes it seems for most of the book, and while that ends up with some amazing drama, it's also heart-wrenching.
I believe this is Brown's first novel, and she did very well. I did enjoy it a lot. I believe it's meant to be part of a series - a trilogy maybe? - because I just saw her post something about having completed a step in the road to the second ASOWAR. I'm excited to see where she takes this in the future. It's definitely an interesting premise with a lot of elements that make her story completely unique.
Four stars because it's a great first novel, and I want more.
#43-2020
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