I bought this book basically knowing one and a half things about it: that it's gay and set in a vaguely historical setting. And both of those are true! The setting feels roughly like a Mediterranean/North African culture, and the main character is Aqib, the youngest son of a man who manages a menagerie for the court, and who lost a lot of status when he married Aqib's mother. For complicated reasons, the whole family depends on Aqib, who is beautiful and effeminate, to marry a high born woman and allow the entire family to rise in society again. But this becomes very complicated for Aqib when he meets Lucrio, a captain who is stationed in their city, and who Aqib falls deeply in love with the first night they meet.
The structure of this book is really interesting, as is the way that language is used to distinguish the characters and their worlds, and the overall narrative thrust. I began to get quite worried about how the story would end, because you want Aqib and Lucrio to choose each other so much, but there is a lot that leads you to believe one or both of them may not. I really liked where it took us, although I could have done with even more focus on the love story, in some ways. A really lovely read, and an interesting follow up to Haunting in a lot of ways.
Grade: B
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