This is a book that never really worked for me, I’m sorry to say.
The protagonist Nara, and her twin sister Osha, are both Pure. They live in one of the last bastions of civilization, on the edge of the tundra. Some indeterminate-but-long time before the book began, a pandemic swept the world, leaving many people with marks on their skin referred to as brands. The disease doesn’t kill, but leaves those infected smaller, weaker, and vulnerable to other diseases and infections. The Pure are those few with natural immunity, and it is the duty of Pure women to bear as many children as they can.
Nara, as one would expect of a fantasy book protagonist, chafes against what fate has in store for her. Her life gets complicated when - among many other things happening - she learns that there is a prophecy about a Pure woman who will act as a messiah, curing the world of the disease and eliminating the division between Branded and Pure.
Overall this book was fine. I never felt the urge to DNF it, but it never really gripped me either. It was all very familiar. Redheaded heroine, possibly the Chosen One. Possible misdirection over who the Chosen One actually is. Childhood crushes fading for reasons good and bad; new attractions resisted and acted upon, also for reasons good and bad. People who refuse to explain things or be honest with each other, for no real reasons I can understand. A protagonist coming to realize that the obviously corrupt system she was raised to believe in is obviously corrupt.
As I said, it’s all fine. Nothing bad about it, but nothing that made me feel any particular desire to seek out the sequel when it comes out.
I do have one bit of particular praise, though. This book deals with sexual assault, and it’s handled very well. None of the character-building clichés that happen so often in literature. I don’t want to say much about it because of spoilers, but that part was … satisfying isn’t the right word, but it’s the best I’ve got.
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