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One of my favorite words I've learned in recent years is 'glib', which is basically style over substance. This book fits the word perfectly. Multiple great elements are here - beautiful prose, imaginative plot points, an impassioned theme over everything - but it never quite comes together for me. I can appreciate getting to the action quickly, but the plot began before I even understood whose story I was following; it never grabbed me to take me with it. Chapters last only a few pages, making the whole book read less like a story and instead like a series of vignettes. Lastly, while I love elevated diction, it faltered at times and took me out of the story. (E.g. "Some trickery will be required. That's where you come in." These two lines do not belong together to me!)

I found myself enjoying parts by focusing on individual stories, but the structure as a whole bored me and felt disjointed. Feminist retellings are wonderful and necessary, but this book spent a lot of time telling me how important equality is and didn't seem to develop far beyond that.

Content warnings for child & adult sexual assault, child & adult death, domestic violence, misogyny (frequent), kidnapping, murder, slavery, self-harm, brief bestiality, alcoholism, incest, betrayal, injury, graphic animal death, surgery, and miscarriage/pregnancy trauma.

Used for 2023 r/Fantasy Bingo (set in the Middle East); also fits angels & demons (hard mode), published in 2023, mythical beasts (hard mode), myths & retellings (hard mode), and queernorm (arguably, hard mode).