North Is the Night

The book has some common tropes but they were popular well before booktok and they will be around long after it. It doesn't inherently detract from the story. I think the romance aspect of the book was unique.

The protagonists weren't particularly "special" and I think that is what makes it interesting. They don't have innate magic or strength that allows them to perform amazing feats. They are kind, resilient, and determined people who rise to the challenges they were faced with. The characters, both human and deity show complexity and nuance. No one is 100% good or evil. They are motivated by conflicting things, sometimes selfish, sometimes they do good things for selfish reasons, aren't always what you expect, etc.

The book didn't go in the direction that I expected it to and I am excited to read the second one.

filled with the trope-isms of an author writing explicitly for booktok. underdeveloped and overexplained, with two protagonists who are elevated as "special" for lackluster reasons. wildly scattershot character development, confounding narrative logic, and despite being built on what should be an interesting setting and foundational mythology, was mostly just boring to read.