Being a big fan of The Broken Earth trilogy and The City We Became, I wanted to read Jemisin's first novel. However, I felt a little let down by this one. Jemisin is a master of lore and world building, and this book is no exception. Her narrative style, as always, blows me away. However, I felt the characters weren't as fleshed-out as they could be. The incest and sexual abuse were also hard to get over. This is not to say that any story that depicts dark topics are automatically bad, but it's just not my cup of tea. Still, I wanted to stick through it to the end, and will admit the ending's payoff is good. Casaundra Freeman's narration is also excellent.