Most of this book left me a little bored. 
I love that it is inspired by colonial Suriname, definitely not something you usually see. However, that is also where its specialness stops. I also felt like its commentary on colonialism was a bit immature. This book is intended for 15+ readers, but much of it felt like “did you know kids, colonialism really sucks”. I hoped for more in depth exploration of dutch colonialism within a fantasy world and I think Rima would know how to do it, yet it felt like the commentary of a children’s book in a book that otherwise is truly made for more mature readers. 

The world building otherwise is solid. It did its own thing where it was needed to tell a fantasy story while still having a lot of historical elements. Overall it did not feel like that much of a unique world as I expected it to be and in many respects is a very basic high fantasy world. 

Priya definitely isn’t my favourite main character. At some point her constant back and forth of feeling inferior and feeling like she is failing everyone and then to being like one of the strongest characters in the story was getting too much. Yes those character arcs are quite normal, but it was laid on too heavily here. I didn’t get attached to any of the other characters either. I’m already forgetting most of them to be honest.