This book opens with the most intriguing of backstories. Fetter's shadow is removed with a nail, he becomes somewhat immune to gravity (and also perhaps to fire), he begins seeing invisible devils, his mother trains him in spycraft and combat, and she convinces him to murder a couple of family members.

From there, the story only gets more intriguing and heartbreaking.

The book is not shy about detailing how his childhood has given Fetter emotional scars, and Vajra Chandrasekera offers an astute character study on someone who doesn't want to be a hero. Despite Fetter's understandable aversion to violence, it can't always be avoided, and the narrative is rife with darkness, danger, tyranny, and adventure, exploring the balance between revolution and complacency in such a creative and perceptive manner. It sort of functions as a retelling of certain Buddhist myths, but set in a secondary world that has emails, phones, barcodes, and group therapy.

The setting looks like a dystopian Sri Lanka. There are pandemics, manipulative demagogues, massacres, acts of postcolonial violence, and examples of discrimination based on caste. Fetter isn't the most politically active person in the world, so the book never fully details all the inner workings of the government, even as he gets himself tied up in intrigue. As a result, politics have a mystical quality to it. It's like its own form of dark magic, a mysterious force that has infected and colonized Fetter's world. Meanwhile the actual magic is treated as mundane. It can be studied by scientists, and parts of it feel more like magical realism.

The book combines this magical realism with mythmaking to tell a story that is both epic and emotionally resonant. It's an ambitious undertaking, especially for a debut author. However, aided by Chandrasekera's high quality prose, the execution is compelling and terrifically unique.