Don’t lose your heart coal
4 stars
I really struggled with the first third of this book - it felt like nightmare after nightmare with no obvious reason. Horror and gore for kicks. But the back half really justifies the first: this is a story about remembering your humanity in the face of dark times, and a little about how power corrupts. If you squint, there’s maybe something here about how terrible things are sometimes needed to maintain peace and stability, but I’m going to choose to ignore this thread. The first half of this book was harrowing; I enjoyed the second half very much.