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reread 11/23/2021:
So I really, really like this book, you guys. (Hence the reread.)

I wrote down some of the stuff that I loved as I read, so:

-Poly

-How Poly recognizes scheming courtiers at a glance

-How Poly has a heady enjoyment in but is slightly uncomfortable with being so much part of things in the village, after being used to staying carefully in the background

-The village (and the Forest)

-Margaret. She is great.

-And Michael and Annie.

-I realized what I find so refreshing about these characters is that they’re mature and deal with conflict in mature ways. I would like more of this in my fiction, please.

-Poly’s sense of humor is being amused by things that would annoy other people and I love it and I relate

-“I hate being patted on the head for a good girl� SAME

-I just realized that if you love someone it can make you be MORE mad at them for behaving badly, and that’s what makes this scene so good and realistic

-How “Yow!� is a thing people say

-“Yes, you’re a very good ComealongPoly and StayathomePoly, but�

-Melchior MELCHIOR (a generally sneaky and untrustworthy person, blood only bothers him if it’s his own, he has strong obsidian-colored magic and one talent and a sarcastic mouth that distresses Poly sometimes)

-The magic is so cool (especially the antimagic and ESPECIALLY the unmagic). How the descriptions of it are so vivid and, y’know, magical, yet also grounded-feeling.

-Okay but THIS is how you write subtle character growth

-The scenes - especially the final one - where she gets her memories back are epic

-“You didn’t kick him when he kissed you!�

-“Not bedtime,� said Onepiece, correctly anticipating the result of being brought to her notice again. “Am splashy-wet and will catcherdeath.�

-Luck is fun, actually, in his absentminded, obscure, gold-magicked, green-eyed, oblivious-to-the-concept-of-personal-space, frustrating way.

-Those utter vultures of wizards

-Sneaky sneaky Black Velvet

-“If you so much as lay a finger on my son I will Bind you into the stairs of the hall until every person in the Capital has walked over your face.�

-I really really really like Poly.

original review 9/3/2021:
This was like if you wrote Howl’s Moving Castle but specifically for me and threw in a generous dash of Sleeping Beauty retelling for flavor. <3