It’s a shame that the issues with this book overshadow the incredibly creative, whimsical worldbuilding. The setting of the book is very much a variation of the Spirited Away world premise. 

The two main characters have no personality and no chemistry, so the insta-love storyline becomes jarring and annoying.  Especially in a book that’s set up with a very Studio Ghibli-type premise, a platonic relationship would have fit so much better and allowed for strong character growth. 

The concept of the plot is great, but the implementation becomes just a string of stops that don’t tie into anything because our characters are two-dimensional and unaffected by anything they experience.