things done well: world set up, the strength systems. things done less well: the characters feel a bit flat to me. things are "explained away" I find this book to be "too fantastic" too often to continue reading. there is no sense of any realism and while I'm not super far along (chapter 34) I don't find it engaging enough.
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LIKEa setting change would not change the kind of realism I am talking about. the characters up to the point I read felt fairly flat (one dimensional), consequences to actions were disproportionate, the parents in the book were unlike any parents I've ever encountered etc. the point of a review is a glance through my perspective of things do e well and I enjoyed and the opposite. I know not all books cater to what I enjoy hence me finding it "too fantastic" for my tastes. with all that being said, some of the driving factors (the puppeteer, the motivation of vengeance etc) I think were done very well.
Just because you haven't met parents who act that way doesn't mean they don't exist, much less in a fantasy world.