Ultimately, this book was not for me. The opening is rough, and the novel felt under-edited, particularly in its narrative voice. I’m comfortable with violence in speculative fiction (I play both TTRPGs and gory video games), the issue wasn’t the brutality but tone. The narrator’s voice often veers into mean-spiritedness, and invites the reader to laugh at stereotypes and caricatures, rather than situations. The novel asks the reader to mourn after it’s already encouraged us to mock. And the mocking feels like bullying.