Talia Moodley

to enter the academy and so I can pave the way for women everywhere.

And I'm pretty sure it was either her cousin or one of her relatives in the early chapters calls her out and says, that's not why you're doing this.

Like even if it was going to make lives worse for other women, you probably would still do this because it's what's best for you and you have this just kind of innate ambition.

and this need to kind of prove yourself, I think.

But I also found that kind of refreshing that she was unlikable in so many ways because I think in the whole realm of, the whole like kind of spectrum of fantasy, we're so often seeing the story through like the eyes of the most sympathetic character.

You know, it's the kind of, like I guess like the Katniss figure, the person who's down on their luck, who's struggling, who is trying to fight the system because they've been

oppressed by the system in some way and they're trying to make the world better for those reasons and to, you know, save their families, to save for whatever reason.

But Siona's literally just there.

She is quite privileged.

I mean, aside from gender, obviously that is her experience and class.

But compared to the Quen, like she's not really fighting the good fight from the start.

She is so unlikable and she retains a lot of those qualities.

more so than others and he's actually so almost quite gentle about the way that he makes her confront that reality but it's also classic she's like wow i didn't know it's so terrible and i'm like didn't you it's actually like a great case study for just portraying like i guess femininity and masculinity as well because he's not like your typical male i guess um you know protagonist like he is more gentle he is a hunter like he has that kind of stereotypical i guess background um

having fought for his family and hunted animals outside of Tiryn before he moved into the city at great cost, as we find out in the first chapter.

Also, how good was that first chapter?

So good.

That just hooked me right away because you basically see, just for context, you're with Siona for the most part of the story.

It's mostly through her perspective, but that first opening chapter prologue is from Tomil's perspective as he and his family, years before the main events of the story, are fighting to

make the crossing where a lot of the Quen die from this mysterious magic that just strikes them down.

And then they, you know, are trying to make it into Tirin, into this domed city so that they can be safe, where they are then completely treated like lower class citizens, not really citizens at all.