I'm at a loss for words
This was so good.
The Saint of Bright Doors is a very complex story, about family, and magic, and the releationship between one self and one's destiny.
This is the story of Fetter, a young man raised by a mother who trained him to kill his father, but years later when he makes a life for himself away from the trail of blood and betrayal that surrounded his childhood, everything changes when Luriat, the beautiful magical city with a very cool secret, is preparing to receive an important religious figure on tour, this being none other than Fetter's own father. His past is catching up with him.
Told through a very peculiar pair of eyes and an enthralling writing style (that deserves 5 stars on its own), you see the political intrincacies of the city's politics and religion, the magic sweeping all around, the relationships between the characters and how they bend and/or break and the growth and constant change of our main character.
This is a story about fathers and sons and mothers, and rebels and politics, and doors and paths, and lovers and friends, and devils and saints, and angels and monsters, and immigrants and allies, and doctors and shadows, and learning and loving and hating.
Will Fetter fulfill the destiny was throwin into him? Will he fail? Will unknown forces do it in his stead? FIND OUT WHEN THIS BOOK COMES OUT!!

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains contents that may trigger sensitive readers like violence, religious fanatism, talks of matricide and homicide, slight sexual behaviour and exorcism.

If you only take one thing from my review, it’s this: I love this book so much. So much. It is so good. It’s going to have a permanent place on my top shelf, only I’m sure it will actually live in a small pile of beloved books much closer to hand, getting its pages dogeared and its spine warped.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera has everything: palpably vivid worldbuilding! Cutting political insight! Quietly wry humor! Propulsive multi-threaded narrative! Knockout prose! Complex and compelling characters, even the minor ones! I usually limit how many exclamation points I use in one review, but I can’t help myself!

The novel follows Fetter, a man somewhat adrift in the city of Luriat. He tethers himself to his community by offering assistance to newer immigrants and refugees to the city, but his deeper longings are still confused: what does he want, himself? It’s hard to tease out his personal desires from those of his psychotically overbearing mother, a woman who shaped him from birth into an assassin. He was meant to be her weapon for destroying his own father, a saint of dubious intentions, but he chose to leave that life behind. Now he spends time with other un-Chosen Ones in a support group, and tries to accept things as they come.

But what do you accept in a city rife with corruption, random violence, and deep economic disparity, and what do you work to change? Fetter is enticed by the opportunity to improve his chosen home, especially because it comes with the chance to learn more about Luriat’s bright doors. The doors are both mysterious and slyly mundane, seeming to be nothing more than ordinary—if slightly ostentatious—architectural fixtures. Why they suddenly appear, though, and what they open into, is unknown. Fetter may be uniquely equipped to discover what the bright doors really are, and in so doing understand a much deeper truth about Luriat itself.

Luriat has elements of New Crobuzon from China Miéville’s novels, an urban wilderness both gritty and gleaming, a bit of order in its chaos and vice versa. But it also has—and hear me out—a bit of Haruki Murakami’s Tokyo, not just because there are unexpected alleys and sudden corners that slip into the surreal, but also because the way that Fetter goes about exploring. He’s one of those characters who, though he definitely has agency, tends to have things happen to him. The city acts upon him, not quite a character and not quite a phenomenon, but definitely not just a setting.

This largely works very well. The city acts through its various avatars, and Fetter responds, and we get to explore Chandrasekera’s incredible world from many different vantages.

The Kafkaesque section during which Fetter is imprisoned in the camps is a bit wearying. I can’t exactly fault Chandrasekera for so accurately conveying both Fetter’s personal depression and the sense of frustration and despair so omnipresent among the political prisoners, refugees, and other unlucky souls trapped in an intentionally opaque system. It has the sense of a map the size of a country, except that it’s a bureaucracy the size of a state. The camps feel bigger than Luriat itself, complete with their own districts and administrative centers—a city not within a city, but perpetually outside of a city. Still, because Fetter has no clear overarching goal—is he still looking for ways to kill his father? Is he looking for a different paradigm than either accepting or resisting the one his mother gave him?—it becomes a little sloggy. Which may itself be the point, metaphorically speaking, but it does still bog down the narrative a bit.

Things pick up when Fetter begins to embrace his powers, but confusion does seep in again as Chandrasekera switches to an unexpected new POV (although the groundwork was definitely laid for the change—pay attention to those not-actually-typo shifts to the first person!) in order to wrap up the story a bit too quickly. Part of this is objection, though, I freely admit might be me not knowing or misunderstanding some of the themes in play—I don’t know enough about Sri Lankan culture and history, and I may be misinterpreting how I should be reading.

But it’s a quibble, and it shouldn’t deter you from reading The Saint of Bright Doors; it’s just a caveat that the ending may not be what you expect in terms of the narrative cadences you’re used to. Fans of Robert Jackson Bennett and Daniel O’Malley will love the magnificent worldbuilding and sociopolitical insightfulness. And the existential insightfulness. The Saint of Bright Doors asks really, really big questions about time, and who gets to control myth, and what myth actually accomplishes in the world. When stories and interpretations compete for ascendancy, where do the losing ones go? What is the fate of all the failed Chosen Ones, and all the utopias or apocalypses they were supposed to usher in? Their stories don’t get told—but here in Luriat and in The Saint of Bright Doors, they finally do.

The Saint of Bright Doors is one of those books where you had better keep your arms and legs inside the moving narrative vehicle: the ride starts fast and doesn't stop. Catch 22 meets The Phantom Tollbooth and somehow it all works.

Fetter was raised to commit all five Unforgivables so that he might properly defy his father, the Perfect and Kind. He moved away from all of his family troubles and into the city of Luriat, known as much for its convoluted bureaucracy as for its Bright Doors. He makes a new life for himself, but he can't escape the devils he must not see, and people keep forwarding him emails for his father's cult's crowdfunding campaign.

As you can probably tell from that little snippet of plot, Fetter's story is complex almost to the point of density, but in a way that only requires suspension of disbelief. I trusted that details would become clear if and when they were meant to be clear (they did!), and was left with the feeling of falling into a frenzied dream.

The juxtaposition of fantastical elements with more mundane, practically anachronistic elements only added to that particular vibe: lost shadows, yawning portals, and mysterious visions of the half-moon are mentioned as casually as paperwork, facemasks, and asbestos.

I'm others will have much to say about the themes of religion, sin, colonization, and general categorization of "the loathly, lonely body" and its "thirty-one parts of impurity." I'm looking forward to reading those analyses, but all I can say is that everything layered perfectly upon itself, histories of frustration and prisons of empty virtue, and I was blown away by this story.

Recommended for fans of The Library at Mount Char, Nona the Ninth, and Piranesi.

I really really enjoyed this book! I'll admit I got a bit lost in the last third, but found my way back by the end. I've never read anything like this, and am really looking forward to Vajra Chandrasekera's other books (if they plan to write more). If you find yourself getting lost in the same section, please power through, it is absolutely worth it!

The world building of this book is complex, but in a way I'm not sure it's meant to be entirely understood. The layout of the continent and countries wasn't always clear to me, nor were the various cultures/religions, but for the most part this wasn't important for the greater plot. There are a few places the reader should know, but they're easy to keep track of.

Chandrasekera manages to mix modern technology with cities and places that feel that they should be ancient. I can't think of any other book that has the same vibes to the writing, and it really was incredible.

I love intelligent books. Gorgeous cover art and I loved the premise of this book (as well as portal fantasy in general). The poetic writing was exceptional and the world building top notch. I absolutely loved it.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan for providing me an electronic advanced copy of The Saint of Brights Doors. 

Fetter's a refugee in a city away from the small town his mother raised him to be an assassin to kill his father and dismantle his legacy. He has a boyfriend and a group of misfit religious figure rejects. He spends most of his time helping new refugees, ignoring regular programs against lower caste members of society, hanging out with his boyfriend, and going to his support group. 

One day, he is sucked into a conspiracy that threatens the way he views himself, his mother, his history, and his new city. In the city of bright doors locked that are locked and go nowhere, in a world where cutting your shadow makes you floor, Fetter is lost finding himself. 

This book is exquisitely written. I found the cast of characters as interesting and overwhelming as I found the world. 

The story was a bit uneven in pacing, and I occasionally had to refer back to remind myself of the characters. Since it was pitched as a novel about bright doors, I wanted them to have more weight. 

I enjoyed it. If you like dense, setting-based books, you should give it a try. I think I would like it better in print and would love to talk about it in a book club.

Magical but not wholly satisfying. The protagonist, Fetter, can also be a bit of a difficult character to follow, as he doesn't have much agency in the story. Things just tend to happen to him, and it can be frustrating at times to watch him struggle. The writing is nothing short of enchanting, with incredible descriptions. However, the element of time in the book can be a bit confusing, making it a challenging read at times. From the opening pages, you're transported to a world that is both familiar and yet wholly unique. The descriptions of the world and its inhabitants are vivid and detailed, bringing it all to life. One of my favorite elements of the book is the narrator, who is revealed later in the story. While I caught hints of their identity before the big reveal, it only made the reading experience more enjoyable. Fans of Natasha Pulley and Erin Morgenstern will definitely want to give this book a chance.





Regenerate response

I've long been baffled by people who believe that SFF writers don't pay attention to prose the way literary writers do. Perhaps there's no convincing those individuals, but Chandrasekera's The Saint of Bright Doors will at least make a good showing. Each word is perfectly chosen, plucked from the twisted, many-limbed body that is the English language and then carefully placed onto the glass slide of the text. On a plot level, the book offers an irresistible premise: a son raised to kill his father, living in a dangerous city where any door can become a bright door. Nobody knows what these bright doors are or whether they pose a threat. The pacing moves along nicely as the mystery builds, I do think the author, who has an obvious love of the liminal, gets a little lost in this liminality in the final third of the book, but that's a minor complaint for what is otherwise a beautiful, intellectual debut novel with lots to say about fascism, colonialism, and parent-child relationships.

This is such a hard book to review. I absolutely can't say what it was really about, but it was a fascinating, genre-blending experience like almost nothing I've ever read. Densely rich, surreal, mythical, incredibly ambitious, a little obscure, grabbed some unknown part of my brain and I felt compelled to keep reading despite it being slow and almost mundane for the first two-thirds. Wouldn't recommend for inexperienced fantasy readers, but will definitely remember this one and would recommend it to someone looking for something wholly new.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera is an original, poetic story about finding your place in the world. At least, for me that is the theme. I have a mixed feelings about this book, at the one hand it was very good, and on the other hand I almost DNFed it. The writing is flowing and full of poetry, but for me it made the story hard to read as I was constantly translating in my head what actually was happening. This combined with the confusion around world building caused me to almost DNF this book. I’m glad I didn’t, as this book is very original with themes that resonate, and the worldbuilding got so much better as the book went along. The characters and magic was also very unique and intruiging, with lost shadows, prophets with very specific powers, combined with things like the internet, group therapy, revolution, anti gay laws and forgotten refugees.

This novel was a lot, with the recurring theme of Fetter and his problematic relationship with his mother, who wants him to kill his father. And of course, the doors! They were so intruiging and mysterious, and the answers gave more questions, just how I like it. I do feel like I’m in over my head and missed about half of the themes at the very least. The plot moved slow, yet somehow a lot happened in this book, so it can’t be that slow. The ultimate revelations were amazing, and I loved Fetter so much. The supporting characters were a mostly bit bland for me, which make me not care so much. As I said, I’m very conflicted about this book. I loved it and I thought it was mediocre. It’s original yet not gripping enough. Therefore I’m giving it three stars. I will recommend this book to other readers, as I think it does stand out for me, and I keep thinking about it. If you like Alice Hoffman or Christelle Dabos I think this is worth checking out.

Sometimes, this is what I get for picking a book based SOLELY on its cover.

This book *wasn't* bad. It just didn't click with me. It had a very interesting premise and the world seemed honestly very cool. I mean, beautifully ornate magical doors that exist even if every shred of wall surrounding them is destroyed?? I love portal fantasy! This seemed straight up my alley!

But the writing didn't really flow. I couldn't connect with the characters. And ultimately I just didn't care much what happened to them. The parental relationship between the main character, Fetter, and his mother seemed like it would suck me in, but I just didn't find that spark that pulled my emotions into the story.

I think there will be readers who love this book, but I am, unfortunately, just not one of them.

This book had a lot of promise and started with solid world-building. However, the plot ended up getting lost among multiple subplots. Several plotlines were either abandoned or hastily wrapped up. There were many words to describe very little; perhaps the story could benefit from more "showing" and less "telling."

This one started out great for me and then either got too complicated or too boring. It lost me in the end. I got sick of Fetter's wishy washy behavior and inability to act. Things seemed to just happen to/for him and I found him lacking any redeeming qualities in the end. It had a lot of promise but fell flat.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera is a richly packed story with intense world building and multi-layered themes. This story will resonate with readers who love a exotic tale of a shadowless son being groomed to kill his own father. This debut novel doesn’t hold anything back, and is equally bold as it is emotional. I found the book challenging to read in parts but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. I am looking forward to the next in the series. Four out of five stars for an epic read! I will be listing this in my library’s recommended purchases.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group via NetGalley for this arc. I read it voluntarily and all views are my own.

3.5. Vajra Chandrasekera’s debut fantasy novel The Saint of Bright Doors is an innovative standalone story with much to recommend it. Fetter, the son of a cult leader raised by his mother to take down his father, is a complex character I’d absolutely read another book about. The idea of the bright doors — their mechanics and their implications — is completely fascinating and captivated me throughout. The supporting characters were sufficiently interesting to care about, and the plot moved along at a good pace though I would characterize this story as more character-driven than plot-driven overall. I really appreciate how this novel centers and normalizes queer relationships while simultaneously acknowledging the existence of homophobia; Chandrasekera does an incredible job of acknowledging the fact that anti-gay laws not having been enforced consistently or recently doesn’t mean they’re not threatening or that they don’t impact people. This is a novel that absolutely has something to say but doesn’t feel heavy-handed in its messaging, and is wonderfully immersive and well written. In short, I really liked this, and look forward to reading more from Chandrasekera.

All this said, a few things didn’t quite work for me. Mainly, I found some aspects of the worldbuilding a bit clunky. In particular, the inclusion of very specifically contemporary references — the internet, masking and distancing, fandoms, crowdfunding — felt out of place in this fantasy world, and I think the novel would’ve been stronger without them. There were also a few sections that felt like they dragged on more than they needed to given their non-centrality to the main plot.

*Content warnings:* violence, death, murder, fire / fire injury, religiously motivated bigotry, xenophobia, state-sanctioned violence, mentions of homophobia, mentions of blood

*Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing an ARC*.

Thank you NetGalley and Tordotcom for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Fetter spent his childhood learning how to be an assassin then ran away to the big city to try and live a normal life. In Luriat, he joins group therapy, gets a job, and studies the mysterious Bright Doors. Also, his father is like, basically a god.

This was weird, and I loved it. I thought Chandrasekera's prose was lovely and immersive, and the visuals he evokes are vivid and detailed. Though he's the son of a cult leader and was trained by his mother to kill said cult leader, Fetter is, in many ways, just a guy out here trying to do his best and not have to murder anyone. I enjoyed the interiority of this novel; we spend a lot of time in Fetter's head, processing things along with him. This is certainly more of a concept/character driven novel than a plot one (and if having a strong plot is important to you, perhaps this will not necessarily be your thing), but I thought it was gorgeous and ambitious and ultimately very well executed. I certainly think this is the kind of book that I'll re-read and continue finding more bits to chew on, which is a rare thing indeed. Also, those last couple chapters? Breathtaking, perfect, I am obsessed.

DNF'd at 11%, I'm incredibly sad to say.

I really wanted to love this book, I just didn't.

As is typical for male authors, this book was just a summary. A summary of a world that I was thrust into with no explanation as to what anything was, but also a summary of characters I didn't know and couldn't care less about. It felt as though this book was a sequel to a story that I hadn't read yet, because I just felt so lost. The world building was fantastic, I just wish the reader had more of a set-up rather than being thrown headfirst into a book that quite frankly didn't make any sense, took itself too seriously, and tried to be more intelligent than it actually was.

I loved the LGBTQIA+ undertones, and the normalisation of it, and as I said, the world building was fantastic. But some explanation would have been great beforehand.

“𝘐𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘱𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘹 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘏𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘬𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦. 𝘏𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺.”

This was a very peculiar and thought provoking read. Was the story what I was expecting? Not in the slightest. Apart from the door mystery. Was the prose what I was expecting? Pretty much. I was hoping for something to keep me fluttery feelings and awe-worthy quotes akin to something like The Starless Sea and this provided in spades. If I could make this entire review just quotes I would. Considering this is a debit I am completely blown away. The world building is immersive, the characters are flawed and real, the words had me reeling.

All that being said, this is a very challenging book to read. It has that thing where the words and sentences sometimes need to be read more than once to understand. It doesn’t read as pretentious so much as just someone was like “okay what’s a better word for seeing, oh, perceiving.” That does sound somewhat pretentious or like someone who was a little trigger happy with their thesaurus, but I personally really enjoy this style. Even though it can make reading longer, it catches my interest. Plus I like learning new, long, unnecessary words. I mean, the first page of this book just had me hooked with the floating and the shadowless boy. I would have loved for that to have been more prominent but it was magical when it popped up.

“𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺, 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘚𝘰 𝘐 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘍𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”

The overarching plot, one of religion and politics intermingling, was a bit confusing at times. The path above and the path behind I kept confusing and I was trying to figure out Fetter’s place among them. I don’t mind a fantasy where I’m a little lost—it somewhat helps me relate to a character who is also feeling lost and confused. This is definitely one I will have to reread at some point. I think a second run through will make it easier to comprehend.

I really enjoyed Fetter as an MC. He was dynamic and funny at times, conflicted and wanting. He goes through a lot of identity struggles and growing up away from the intense childhood he had with an overbearing mother. I enjoyed his processing and journey throughout the story.

Overall, a really wild read. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s worth it if you take your time!

Thanks so much NetGalley and TOR for the advanced review copy!

“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘥, 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘸. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘦, 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰.”

This cover is absolutely stunning.
I wanted to love this so much. The description was so intriguing to me, but I just found myself struggling. I read a good amount of sci-fi and fantasy, but even I was struggling with how much world-building there was. Combine that with the ever=changing threads of truth from each character, and I was left needing to re-read parts of chapters just to understand what was going on. I do think this was action-packed and a wildly fun ride, so even though it took me a while to really get into the swing of the writing and world-building, I did enjoy this. It's an interesting blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements but can get bogged down by it's own intricacies at times. I am interested to see how the physical version of this does in our library, though!

Chandrasekera's writing is so brilliant and assured that it had me from the first sentence and then kept me the whole time. The blend of dream-logic and deeply grounded relationships, the ancient and new city and country, the way everything was just a little fevered, just a little out of reach. This is the kind of new fantasy book that makes me excited about the genre. It left me a little breathless I am so in awe. Definitely one I'll be thinking about long after I've finished!