Back of the book
Two sisters must harness their powers to fight for the people they love. But when those powers are capable of overturning worlds, love can be an uprising.
Nara and Osha have escaped the Citadel and the brutality of the Wastelands to arrive in the capital of Reis, home of the wrangler.
The Shadow City is rife with rumours of a long-awaited prophecy – the coming of a Pure healer who can cure the Branded. All eyes are on Osha, and there are those who would kill to control her gifts. To protect her sister, Nara must navigate new allies and old enemies. Easier said than done when she's caught between her first love and the man who's stolen her heart but broken her trust.
One thing is becoming clear: Nara and Osha must learn to wield their powers. With dark forces taking control across the continent, the Branded must rise to survive.
My thoughts
This book was less great than the first. I had a slight feeling in the first one that the book travelled too far, in this one I definitely feel that way. I feel like this one was more rushed, less clear and concise, trying to fit a vast handful of events across so many locations without a really clear narrative.
The relationship between Nixim and Nara was appropriately held back and strained in book one. In this book it started to feel forced, dragging out the break of trust for longer than it needed to while Nara constantly admitted/denied her feelings for him. I guess the stubbornness of the main character was annoying me.
In book one Riccioni makes it easy for us to give up on Brim and love Nixim more, so trying to turn us back to the Brim side was unsuccessful. I wanted Brim to be old news and it was uncomfortable considering they are sort of related. The double betrayal lost its power. I didn't care that Brim died. You can't keep using the same plot device, with the same character, and expect it to be powerful each time without the appropriate build up. I did love in the previous book the exploration that Brim's good qualities (honesty, loyalty) were also the negative ones that had him holding on to the Isfalk ideals, unable to let go of his strong belief system.
I did like the ending, but I wasn't as enchanted with the sequel as I was with the first. The first book opened up so many possibilities, exploring class distinctions, disease and power but the messaging that came through was very weak. I feel it could have been a commentary on these societal issues but it just didn't shine through for me.
Overall, the duology had great potential to explore a lot of powerful themes, rights of women and their bodies, class distinction, love, trust and betrayal. I don't feel it carried any strong messages about any of these topics. As enchanted as I was with the unique world and ideas it contained, I lost some of that love when I felt it was meandering about the continent half-heartedly participating in war instead of being clear about a direction of the narrative. The second book felt more rushed, and that it tried to fit too much in, glancing over each topic and event instead of diving into detail about anything in particular.
Worth a read, likely to enjoy it, but now that I have read so many magical and powerful books, I expect more. It wasn't a bad book, but it will not join my list of top favourites.
TL:DR
The first book is better, the world it invents has the possibility to carry a strong moral message but never quite delivers. A good read, but not a fantastic one.