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the_midwest_library 's review for:

And the Sky Bled by S. Hati
2.5
adventurous mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is a hard review to write efficiently. There are a lot of really interesting concepts in this book. But frankly, for me, each element of the book was a bit unpolished. The genre (climate fiction) provides a wonderful backdrop for a social/economic metaphor. But the theming felt heavy handed. 

 The world is really creative: magic rain provides a synthetic type "element" which is the backbone for the economic/political/technological systems. However, because the world is so busy and the book relies on telling not showing, I found the worldbuilding required you to suspend a lot of disbelief. 

But the biggest issue I had was that the writing was sophomoric and unrefined. I almost feel like this falls between age demographics a bit weirdly. The characters are not young per se but they act very immature at times. 

It's a shame because there is a lot to like about this but it just didn't feel like s6 complete story to me.