Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

I'd like to thank Netgalley for the chance to review this book early in exchange for an honest review.

What I drank prior: I went to my kickball game and played 3 hours of beer pong. No idea the number of beers but I am drunk.

Spoiler free overview: 
So this thief kid hears about the competition to be one of four of Our Queen's assassin. Thing about the thief kid (Sal) is that they are gender fluid and a citizen of the nation murdered in the war. Anyway. They join this competition and everything goes from there.

Spoiler free thoughts: 
This story is so well done. It's often that I read an assassin story that's all "I don't *want* to be an assassin but I gotta for reason xyz" but this story isn't that. Sal just wants to get out of being a thief and is all about serving Our Queen. I looooved this.

Plot: really though. My only con is that I felt like I could skim a bit of the text while only reading the dialogue. But I find that I catch myself doing that often. That's a Sam thing and not a book thing. The plot was super fast paced and intriguing through the whole bit. LOCED it.

Characters: Sal was so great. They explained the whole gender fluid bit really well. Specifically which pronoun to use when. Sometimes she was she and other times he was he but if you were ever confused it was they. ADDITIONALLY the other characters were fleshed out enough that I created a bond with them and was connected to them. There were so many but I felt the feels necessary. The villain was a goooood villain.

World bulldog (editor's note: woah I was drunk): very well done. Explaining the Shadows and what led to the destruction of Sal's people.

This book comes out on September 5th. You can get it here.

What to pair it with: a great craft beer

Rating: 5/5 shots for fucking sure.

COMMENT DOWN BELOW: What are some recommendations you have of books with gender fluid characters?

PS. Also, if you haven't signed up for #Booziebookathon 2017 on July 22, see our announcement post here.