This book review was part of a podcast discussion.
Listen to the episode here.
The first half of the book was slow; it read like a love letter until the action picked up. It built the world through Shefali telling events to Shizuka in the form of a letter, following them when they are children, preteens, then teens. She and Shizuka are bound to each other from birth “like two pine needles.” At age eight they earn their adult names by slaying a tiger. At ten, Shefali sees a demon and inexplicably knows more than she should about them. As teenagers, the girls follow Shizuka’s feeling of being called to the north, where they encounter another demon and must battle. This is about when the book most interested me, as they fought against the demon and dealt with the stigma of loving each other. It took a while to get there, but I think the story was worth getting to.
Minnesota
Caty Willis works a boring day job, but in downtime fancies herself an artist and writer. She loves reading, especially fantasy, and dreams of opening a bookstore one day. Follow her on Twitter @shimmybook.
