Barb’s Reviews > Red City > Status Update

Most of her feels numb. Expose the mind repeatedly to the same trauma, again and again and again, and it will learn to protect itself by normalizing the extraordinary.

Ok, admittedly I was successfully bamboozled by Book of the Month into reading this. So far it reads like a YA novel, and I bristle when it starts to feel too much like other stories (Sand/Spice?) ( boy child plucked out of his family to be educated as Alchemist/Wizard?) but I'm sticking with it.

at the last moment, she feels a panic at being so seen, a dread at centering herself. It's not that she doesn't think their problems deserve attention--only that her problems don't. They have never discussed anything personal before, have never asked each other for help. And the fear of being the first to apply such a stress test to their bond, is so potent she can't bring herself to do it.