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pixelateddragon 's review for:

4.25
challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is both a deeply messed up and intriguing story.
I read it between the hours of 2 and 6 am so my recollection of exact detail is a bit fuzzy but please read the content warnings before checking this book out because there is a lot of heavy and triggering content in this story, it's literally about the aftermath of war in an already deeply fucked up and oppressive society.
Also, I couldn't include it in the content warnings, but there are descriptions of starvation as a form of abuse in this story too.

With those disclaimers out of the way: I actually really enjoyed this book.
The prose was clear and crisp and easy to read (and had many Pinterest-board-quotable phrases lol).
The emotions of the main character were extremely visceral and evocative, and there were many moments that felt like an actual punch to the chest (or induced actual nausea in me) while reading.
The author and the translators definitely knew what they were doing, it was an amazing (if a somewhat distressing) read.

On another note, though I'm not sure if I actually truly ship the main 2 characters together (I honestly would not want them to get together in their current state, there needs to be a lot of healing and growing before then), I'm hoping that they eventually resolve the everything that's going on with them, and that Mo Xi learns
the actual reasons behind Gu Mang's betrayal. 
 

I'm very excited (and a bit scared) to see what happens next, both with the story and with these characters that have such an interesting dynamic and so so much messy history between them.
 


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