“This is a book, and a book is a world, and words are the seeds in which meanings are curled. Pages of oceans and margins of land are civilizations you hold in the palm of your hand. But look at your world and your life seems to shrink to cities of paper and seas made of ink. Do you know who you are, or have you been misled? Are you the reader, or are you the read?”
This book follows Sefia, who fled to the wilderness with her Aunt Nin after her father was brutally murdered. She learns to hunt, track, and steal, but eventually Nin gets kidnapped and Sefia is left alone. Though she can survive, that doesn’t help with discovering if Nin is alive, or where she is. She only has one clue, a large, rectangular object left to her by her father, which she later comes to learn is a book, a rare object in an illiterate society. With this clue, she sets out to find her Aunt, her father’s killer, and to serve justice.
I’m not sure when I first got this book, but I’ve read it a few times and it’s one of those books that just gets better every time. There are puzzles and mysteries quite literally hidden in the pages. Not only are you reading as Sefia uncovers what happened and what is happening, but you are also solving puzzles on your own accord, some of which you might not even notice the first time around.
Overall, this is a great book, and, although the magic system is a little complicated, I would strongly recommend.