Why this rating
Triangulates a few of my interests. Historical fiction that's not Victorian England. A trilogy. Award winning (first came on my radar with the NYT book review podcast interview with her editor). That said, the book didn't really work for me. It was fine. Good at points. It was low on plot, which is not a deal breaker for me. But if the plot is low then I need the language to sing to me. It didn't. It felt Shakespearean in structure and language. As if Shakespeare wrote a diary in fan fiction prose about the goings on of his day. I'm excited to read the next and finish the series. It's not bad. I was just really hoping to fall in love with the author.