“Just remember that you can only carry so much. Even the smallest thing can be the twig that broke the elk’s back.”

The book starts off strong with a startling incident that made me think it would be darker. I always thank the inclusion of content warnings at the beginning; I should be doing a post on their importance soon.

I get that people cope with grief differently. Still, Saevel is too busy finding obstacles every step of the way that the consequences of significant events are overshadowed by some urgent matter.

In their search for answers Saevel meets new people, and while at first they’re distrustful of strangers wanting to help them, they open up and find valuable allies.

I found Saevel a little inconsistent. They go from distrusting a character they’ve learned has been lying and manipulating to sharing delicate information with them. They also jump to conclusions when there aren’t enough clues and stay oblivious about more obvious stuff. I may excuse them for all they’re going through.

Tragedy strikes again with too-convenient timing to solve another problem. I didn’t feel much of a climatic tension as the pace picks up in the last 5% of the book. On this, there was a last-minute twist that came out of nowhere.

At times it felt more MG than YA in terms of the adventure style, but it addresses darker topics like eating disorders, grooming, and child death.

I had fun with a couple of allusions to flat-earthers and the not-so-subtle punches to religion.