This book offered a perfect blend between fantasy, realism and romantic storylines. A case study in  the celebration of differences through a story of inversion, deceit, desire to survive and layers of lies. The characters are well developed and complex in ways you don’t often see and the plot is extremely engaging overall. Relationships are looked at from all angles, with deep and genuine friendship at the heart as well as the romantic storyline. I felt I had a lot in common with the main character and the gender politics and inversion in the book hits hard for anyone who has questioned their identity or felt out of place in their own skin. Was it a perfect representation of these gender ideas? No of course not, but where it differs from ✨certain other✨ similar stories within mainstream media is its issues do not cause harm, and the Zhu is ultimately unwilling to back down from what she wants regardless of expectations or experience. I do feel that the ending was slightly rushed but i believe there is a sequel and so i must forgive this for now! Overall it was an engaging read and i enjoyed it