A review by napkins
In the Vanishers' Palace by Aliette de Bodard

3.0

I feel like I would have really loved this had it been a full novel - as it is, it sets up its mythology and characters beautifully, but it left me wanting so much more from it. There's a lot going on and a lot to set up and while almost every sentence has some sort of worldbuilding or reveal within it, it still feels like not quite enough. I adore the world its set in though; it straddles the lines between speculative and magical realism and fantasy so well, while still having that fairy-tale edge to it, with its magic system of bending reality with words and the lingering specter of the Vanishers, who went too far with it and finding one's place in the ruins left behind.