I’m gonna be so real, I did not enjoy this!
The thing that frustrates me so much about this book is Rin’s stubborn refusal to have even the slightest amount of curiosity about the world around her. Throughout the entire book (or at least up to 88%, when I’m writing this), she’s so absolutely convinced that she knows everything that when people who have demonstrably more knowledge and better understanding than her try to offer her advice or guidance she rejects it out of hand if it conflicts even the slightest bit with what she wants: power.
She isn’t curious about who the Woman is or why she’s so determined to stop Rin from accessing the Phoenix’s power. She isn’t curious about why Jiang is so insistent that she learn control and restraint rather than to summon fire. She isn’t curious about anything and the result seems to be that people say “If you do this, bad things will happen,” Rin goes “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me,” and then the bad things happen and she gets mad about it like she could never have seen it coming.
And ultimately I think that’s why I can’t really say I liked this book. I don’t like a character who is this static and committed to being both stupid and pigheaded, and while obviously I have a ton of sympathy for the Nikara people I find it hard to have sympathy for Rin specifically because she’s not only aggressively unlikeable but also is wrong a lot and doesn’t ever learn or grow from that experience. And I just don’t super care to read a protagonist who’s like, I mean yeah the genocide they committed is bad, but MY genocide is good and just and different. Kitay was right!!
And at the end she’s SO close to getting it but then just pivots straight to “and I’m definitely more powerful than the gods, they have no power except what I give them so I’m gonna make them do my bidding!” Like girl you’ve been here 5 minutes and historically this hasn’t worked out for you!!