Free copy received in exchange for an honest review.

The world has been broken down and what is left are its floating pieces. One of these is home to a family whose powers are related to objects. Ophelia has been chosen on account of her strong ability to read an object's past to be a bride to an unknown man living on the distant Ark of the Pole. She soon discovers that it's not just the weather on the Pole that's cold. Thrown into a never-ending battle for power between various families, she needs to find out who she can trust.

The most appealing part about this book was the world-building. The broken world setting is original and there are some hints about its mysterious origin. The magic isn't necessarily unique, but the system is. Each arc has its own type, which manifests in different ways in each individual/family.

There are not many likable characters. We mostly get to know characters from the Pole, where people grow up in a place where you either play the game or die. The author still made me at least sympathize with them, if not like them. Ophelia, as the main character, was very likable. She starts off being a bit weak-willed and naïve, but grows quite a bit through the book. Also, she is the first clumsy girl that I encountered in a book with a valid reason to be that way.

The romantic interest in this book was quite complex, as was his relationship with Ophelia. Don't expect much of a romance from the first book.

I enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot, and the ending was promising, but the middle was a big slog. I didn't hate it because it served its purpose, but it wasn't fun to read. Maybe it's on purpose to feel like the main character does because she was definitely not having a fun time.

I am certainly looking forward to the sequels. The first book mostly just established the environment and the goals of the characters, so I am hoping the second book will be more fast-paced. ( )

I love this book so much I will fight you ( )

Definitely not predictable, took some truly unexpected turns. ( )

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Forced marriage, physical assault and injury, blood depiction, sexist slur, cheating mentioned
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

Well, first, what's wrong with BookTok? I briefly saw this novel on the BookTok shelf at one of the two libraries I go to but I put it off for a while until I finally picked it up and read it. When I finished it, I felt nothing but dissatisfaction as the story looked so promising, unique and original but when I read it, it was too tedious. It starts with a prologue explaining how the world was nothing out of the ordinary until 'The Rupture,' splitting the world into numerous floating islands called 'Arks.' Then it cuts to the main character Ophelia (whose last name I forgot) living on an ark called Anima but here's the catch: she can travel through mirrors (unfortunately I didn't see much of that, shame.) Here is where the flaws surface, well for a supposedly civilised society it's backward since one of the characters forced Ophelia to marry a predetermined partner (Come on. Really? She should have a choice. But she doesn't. Why?) Did I also mention that I wasn't a fan of how the author wrote the female characters to make them look bad? It sounds discriminatory. The issues don't end there, since the plot is slow (normally that wouldn't be a problem since that would let me explore the characters more, but since the author didn't write them well, it didn't help.) I had to push myself to finish the book, otherwise I would've given it a DNF, but it fizzled out anyway, and I won't finish the series. Shame. ( )

I glanced at a few reviews of this book, and they weren't too positive about the protagonist. I can sort of understand why. She's getting abused a lot and there are times she seems passive about that. Still, I like her tenacity, and I think the passive parts are for a large part due to the situation. She gets more expressive further along in the book, and more active. And somehow, whenever I was reading this, I got completely sunk into this world. On several occasions I didn't notice people talking to me, and that hasn't happened to me in a while. I like the arks, I like the mystery of the ancestors. Many, well, most of the characters are detestable, and I feel they are not getting the comeuppance they deserve. Yet they also seem to have their moments.
Overall, I really liked it, and I haven't been so entranced by a book in a while. ( )