The world building in this book to stunning, the descriptions throughout the book of the fourspires and surrounding world is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It is a completely unique world from the sky of teeth to the melting walls and rotting ulcer in the basement. The description is so detailed you can imagine you are there inside the gory, creepy, gothic castle.
The introduction to the 5 spires and the main characters was a nice touch and incredibly useful. The accompanying illustrations are absolutely beautiful and continue throughout the book.
The magic system is incredibly unique, it’s made up of four disciplines stone, blood, bone and botany. Each discipline has a head arcanist that takes power from a familiar. Each morning they have to perform the suppression to stop the apocalypse.
The story follows four familiars one from each discipline Taro, Nixie, Elliot and Alis as they are forced to work together to prevent the slaughter. The slaughter is a competition between their arcanist to become the new head which will lead to most if not all of their deaths.
The relationships between these characters are complex, full of hate, love, longing and attraction. If there’s an emotion they feel it at one point or another.
The inner dialogue is hilarious, the characters are complex and have a complicated history we are yet to learn more about. I can’t wait for book two.
The book has great LGBTQIA+ representation and Handles dark themes well.
I haven’t been this excited about a book in a long time, I simultaneously didn’t want to put it down and wanted to make the reading experience last as long as possible.
Thank you NetGalley, Bloomsbury publishing and Cassidy Ellis Slater for my copy of the E-Arc.

This book is an absolute lesson on how to write well rounded characters that you love to hate!! The a sea of YA fantasy books this one really stands out, it's story is refreshing. It doesn't follow the old enemies to lovers trope, every character decision is layered and has a real thought process behind it. I look forward to book two!

What did I just read? I'm not entirely sure but I know that I am OBSESSED.

Walls that bleed? A rotting ulcer below ground? Creepy nuns of questionable origin that take great chunks out of people and get excited at the prospect of bloodshed? Teeth in the sky?

Yeah, teeth.

I am in awe of the confidence of this writing; the world that has been created is completely bonkers and it couldn't care less whether you can keep up or not. It's going to keep throwing details at you and you can like it or lump it. There's probably actual lumps in the walls somewhere.

I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book. For all of the "oh no, it's the end of the world" moments of peril, there are so many details that just make it such a fun, visual experience.

Then there's the characters. Oh, those troublesome four. The characters are beautifully flawed. They are SO easy to dislike and judge yet somehow, by the end, you are genuinely rooting for them to come together and succeed, all the while wondering: wait, when did I start to like them? I don't think I approved this change of heart?

The representation of LGBTQIA+ struggles was handled with delicacy and grace, not overplayed but written in just enough detail that your heart really goes out to them, Alix especially.

The little cliffhanger at the end as well, teasing the theme for the next book? Brilliant. Needless to say, I cannot wait for book two.