Beautifully written, with language grounded in the historic-fantasy desert setting and delicate, almost fairytale-esque storytelling. Which unfortunately does make for a more distant reading experience than I think most current YA readers are accustomed to. Detached, mythic tone, with some commentary on gender relations, politics and power, feminism, heroism... The magical elements that draw together toward the end felt confusing and not as grounded in the world as they could have been, but again, just lovely writing. Feels more like literary than genre fiction.
