I have a love/hate relationship with this book for so many reasons...
First, I went back and forth between a 3 and 4 as a rating throughout the book, bordering both higher and lower throughout different sections. The beginning I think is really strong. I enjoyed it a lot. It sets up a lot and does it well. Around ~30% or so, my mind started to sway. Some reviews mention early part of this book is slow, but maybe that's the romantasy crowd, whereas I am very much the SFF crowd (and not the romantasy one). Want to mention that here and now. I hardly ever dabble in romantasy (which will come back around later).
The lore of this book is awesome. Alchemy, sand, the different kinds of alchemy all are AMAZING. And as someone who writes about very similar things. Alchemy & philosophical questions about the soul go hand-in-hand, and are done so extremely well in this book. The use of powers, the factions. All awesome. The concept? Alchemical syndicates/mafias!? I mean, come on. Amazing. 10/10, no notes. Truly.
The relationships. Ugh. Alright. The mother-daughter relationship between Connie and Sam? Amazing. Lu captures this so extraordinarily well. The ripping the guts out of Bunny was an early visceral scene that I probably will never forget. The next passage from Sam, you could feel her losing herself, losing the small aspect of a childhood she had managed to hold on to, the deadening of her soul, so to speak, which is so beautiful considering all the future implications. Even the relationship as she gets older, it's done so well from both sides, which is rather rare (probably because people obviously only live through one side of it). To the end, the relationship is strained but meaningful, and it defines Sam, whether she wants it to or not. And for Connie? Damn. So... loved all of that.
That being said, relationships are also where I have my biggest issue in this book. I feel like it's meant to make you uncomfortable, which it does well lol. The fact that they both essentially fell pray to grooming is... sad. The interactions between Will and Sam, though, made me set the book down several times. She becomes essentially obsessed with him, and she has to mention every single thing he does and her feeling to it, and it got tiresome. It also got extremely cliché around the whole "my love for Ari is pure and good and not lustful, but Will is this bad boy I just can't get out of my head". Again, romantasy is not my forte, but this felt borderline YA with sex scenes tossed in. Like so much so, that the first sex scene had me a little shellshocked. Then, we get the "not even sure if he can fit" kind of comments all back to back that kinda make you roll your eyes lol. But after that, I was more prepared for them, and I didn't mind them as much. I also totally understand that the first time was needed to show the abilities of the bioalchemists. Still stand by my statements...
The characters. Sam feels human. Moody and a little surface level, but human Ari feels.... something? They both had moments of greatness in the story, but there were so many "uh, huh?" moments for me. Ari essentially becoming this high level prostitute just wasn't my favorite. Sam's character spoke well, I think because of her relationship with her mom, while Ari's I feel like was Rudra, but idk... Again, solid moments, but they flickered.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Even as someone treading in territory other than my own here, I did enjoy it. I would recommend it for romantasy folks MOST DEFINITELY. For SFF, I would say if you don't have an aversion to sex scenes, go ahead. It's not all that crazy. Nothing that I think you would completely drop a book over, but these are my unfiltered thoughts. All in all, I would give it a solid 3.5 stars (with probably being able to be convinced to both give and take away half a star a year from now...)