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˗ˏˋ 5 �� ˎˊ˗

just the other day, i was thinking how i don’t really have a book i can claim as my favorite with my whole chest �� then i picked this one up. it was such a beautifully composed, unique, atmospheric story with stunning motifs and the loveliest cast of characters. eliasz and liska endeared themselves to me immediately with their complexities and consistent motivations and drives. i so genuinely cared for both of them, which is a huge testament to the author’s composition of them.

not to mention that i loved their romance so much. the subtlety, the yearning, the steady building of it �� because they both had their own reasons to fear it but wanted each other so desperately. the flirty banter, the lingering looks, the disbelieving touches �� both of them knowing how they feel, how the other feels, and the ratcheting tension of it. the way their mortal wounds healed one another with every interaction. (him comforting her!!! WHILE??!! kill me please that is one of my favorite microtropes.) the love as religious fervor, as worship, as blasphemy. and the ending was such a perfect culmination for all of it. there was no other conclusion that would have been simultaneously as rewarding and devastating to my wellbeing.

bars:
�� of women, he’s heard it said: “she will be the end of me,�� or “she will be my undoing.�� none of that is true for liska radost. she is not the end of anything, but the beginning of everything. he has been dead a long time, and she is his resurrection.
�� ”tell me how to save you.�� [ . . . ] “i am already saved.��
�� ”you are my soul, liska radost. i lived seven hundred years to find you.��
�� ”i wish i could do it over,�� he murmurs. “without secrets, without fear, without the demon between us.��
�� she is beautiful, and he is going to die for her.

soundtrack:
��� from eden �� hozier
�� i bet on losing dogs �� mitski
��� beautiful things �� benson boone
�� cannon ball �� damien rice