I ended up liking this book a less than I hoped I would.

Reading about the constant abuse Eke experiences as well as the horrible actions of the family was really rough. That family is severely dysfunctional and disordered. Every single one of them is in severe need of therapy. 
Especially animal cruelty is very uncomfortable for me. I should have checked the trigger warnings before requesting this arc because I wish I could have spared myself from it. 

Eke was a confusing protagonist. He is very naive and often acts like a child would. It makes sense for who he is, but it makes a story of rebellion seem rather odd. I am used to witty characters to manage such a thing and Eke kept making naive and bad choices. I have no idea how he survived anything in this book. To be fair, both him and Kyp would have died many times if not for the help of other smarter characters. 

The story felt like a piece of something that could be much bigger. The plot is rather short while trying to do something bigger than it is. It made many attempts fall rather flat. The time at the family could have been cut shorter and instead more focus and time could have been spent on after, since I feel like it needed a lot more work for it to be impactful and so that the characters got the character development they needed from it. The world building had potential, but now I am left a bit unsure what exactly it was trying to tell me. 

Eke and Kyp’s romance was not very exciting. It did very little for me. I’m not sure why that is, perhaps it was Eke’s lack of knowledge about emotions, but I am not sure. I think I also expected a bigger romance focus. 

I really enjoyed Kyp’s chapters. They were always a highlight and tended to have the stories most interesting to me. I’m sad there were so few of them. 

I leave this book not really knowing where to place it. I mostly think of it in quite neutral terms. I didn’t particularly enjoy myself but it’s also not like I didn’t like it.