unfortunately, couldn't get past the prose. i think the book holds a lot of promise, the concept is nice, the worldbuilding is interesting, and i like the parallels between the two protagonists. the writing however is consistently clunky, with odd word choices and sentence constructions, and i can't gloss over prose as much as other readers with different tastes might. 

i think it would have benefitted from stronger, tighter editing, or perhaps the author needs more books under their belt to truly find their style and unique way of building atmosphere - what i was getting from this (and i could be wrong!) is a layering of synonyms of more common words in an attempt to get a Fantasy Voice And Vibe. it unfortunately rarely does the trick, and only comes off a little forced. the book does have a solid vision, but a real struggle in execution that makes it really hard to get into the emotional beats of the story. 

i'll be keeping up with the author to see what comes next, and am curious to check out the published version and whether it'll have gone through some more editing. maybe i'll pick it up again at some point! i also do believe this is a book that can find its loving audience, i only hope it will :-)