The fantasy world is intriguing, but it feels like little lore was established. There are cool bits and pieces of worldbuilding, but they don't coalesce, and the fantastical elements of the world don't feel cohesive. I enjoyed that there were African/ African-inspired characters from various ethnic groups. Naala is an inn-keeper's daughter, so an eclectic variety of clientele roll through. The writing was a bit disorienting for me. It was a combination of author syntax and using the 3rd person omniescent point of view to narrate. I felt like I didn't get a good understanding of Sinai and Naala's characters due to how the story was told. The story generally felt meandering and aimless. I liked that it wasn't predictable, but I don't know if any of the vignettes that happened were delightful enough to compensate for the story's lack of momentum.