A review by misanthropic_bibliophile
The Republic of Salt by Ariel Kaplan

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

3.5

I went into The Republic of Salt fresh from reading The Pomegranate Gate (which I’m obsessed with) so I was very eager to see where the story went. It’s a direct continuation from where we left off in TPG. I looooove these characters so much, I love the worldbuilding, I love the story. My thing with this sequel is that it took me fooooreeeeveeeerrr to read. I certainly enjoyed the journey, but for most of the time I wasn’t really very invested (the first chunk was very much just everyone traveling in the forest and that got old for me after a while). I think it’s because this book is way more heavy in the plot department than its predecessor, which felt much more mysterious and atmospheric and character-focused. I wanted the same super magical immersive feeling, but since this book was more focused on the actual big-bad threats and the plotting and scheming and mechanics of war strategy, I wasn’t as enchanted. However, THE END WAS SO GOOD and everything absolutely came together.

*i got an eARC from Netgalley*