Prequel to the first book, showing Vlad's beginnings. I continue to be super into the series, and i already know I'll have to re-read it in the end to catch all the connections, the politics, the relationships. Also we see Vlad and Cawti get together here, which, man. All the love. Other than that: The phrasing, the matter-of-fact-ness, the honesty about tensions and things needing time and sheer terror before and after the fact. The friendship. The accounting. Man, I love it. And the relationship stuff is actually sweet, in the sense that Cawti has principles and won't back down just because Vlad is a bit of an idiot sometimes, and is generally cooler than he is without being a manic pixie dream girl. I love this whole book. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.