I didn’t quite know what to expect when going into this book because I honestly bought it solely based off of the cover and don’t think I read the synopsis. I don’t regret it though, seeing that I enjoyed it more than I thought. 

The story is more plot-driven than character-driven, which I find works well for this story (I have no particular preference for either). The characters learn things and do change but the main point of the story is the journey, and the characters could easily be replaced with other people (with similar circumstances). I was honestly surprised at how much happened in the story, cause it was a lot. But even though there was so much happening it wasn’t hard to follow, and it didn’t become overwhelming. There were points where it detracted from the story, in that I expected it to end, knowing that this is the first part of a trilogy; but it didn’t. The story it sets out to tell from the beginning is followed through to the end and thoroughly concluded, while the last couple of chapters set up the next book quite well. Additionally, I am exceptionally curious about the events of the next book, because of the well-done world-building.

The primary issue that’s prevalent throughout the story is the author definitely has a tendency to tell rather than show. There are a lot of times where it would have elevated the story, but it seemed the author settled. When “showing” actually happened, it was for smaller arguably irrelevant things. Regardless, the story was saved with an interesting premise and good world-building. I am legitimately curious about what’s going to happen in the second book.