The author says this is a fever-dream they've turned into a novella, and from this perspective it's a success - something abstract and strange and not entirely logical made into a coherent linear plot.

However I found it hard to engage with - while I can empathise with the characters they are unfortunately very broadly sketched, the situation they find themselves in is largely nonsensical at first (other than being dickish, what do the Ajungo gain from this deal?), and is even more nonsensical later when the truth is revealed, which rather ruins the twists that seem bold only until scrutinised.

The fantasy aspects in terms of people's powers are fine but are largely unearned (that it's a basic "heroes journey into the underworld and back" is all there is to justify it) and don't add anything to the story other than a convenient means to turn the tables, which is disappointing - there's no internal logic to it nor thematic reasons for it.

The writing style is fine - described as poetical and in fact quite economical, but if you removed the phrase "city of lies" you could probably reduce the page count of this already short book by 10.