What a fun book! Read it fast and compulsively, it was compelling and entertaining. An interesting spin on fantasy novels, really not a fantasy novel at all except for the setting. The basic trope of "it's not fun to be the king afterall" has been told before. But this book has a special knack for getting inside our protagonists head and communicating all the social anxiety and confusion a young man would feel being unexpectedly elevated to Emperor. It's well done.

My one complaint is the book is a bit claustrophobic. There's only the one protagonist and one point of view and it is sort of relentless. That kind of echoes the way he himself feels trapped and confined in his new life, so it works in that way.

I really like how various unpleasant emotions are honored and not apologized for. Early on our protagonist decides he simply hates one person in his life and wants nothing more to do with him. And that's fine; his dislike is valid, he uses his power to (decently) remove his enemy from his life. No apology for it. Sometimes the real world is like that, but too many books try to always present an uplifting story of redemption. There's plenty of redemption in the book too, mind you.