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A delightful Filipino-inspired YA fantasy! Where this book really shines is the worldbuilding, which, imho, hits the YA sweet spot: The main ideas are relatively straightforward and easy to grasp, but there's still enough nuance that I felt like I was reading about real people in a real society.

Other things I liked:
+ The premise of this book is so ridiculously cool. A society must fight against monstrous beasts to colonize a jungle and expand the Known World—but the further they expand, the weirder the Unknown World that they encounter becomes.

+ The pacing is generally solid. Reveals and twists are evenly spaced. The third quarter dragged a little, but one particular moment during the climax made everything worth it.

+ Seri is a likable and real main character. She's strong-willed but still vulnerable.

Things that didn't work as well:
- The love interest, Tsana, felt like the book's least well-developed character to me, which meant that I didn't quite buy into the romance. I'm very, very picky, though, and I do appreciate the sapphic representation.

- Because the dichotomy between the Known World and Unknown World is so cool and interesting, I wish the book focused on it a little more. At times, we know more than Seri does about the Unknown World because we see it from Tsana's POV and Tsana knows many of the Unknown World's secrets. I kind of wish we discovered the truth of the Unknown World along with Seri so that we got to experience all of her wonder and fear and surprise along with her.