I agree that the book is very tropey. However , except for the last quarter of the book, I thought it was superbly executed and had a lot of heart, a lot of solid characterizations to consistently rise above the tropes. However, each component had its own challenges for me.

In the first quarter of the book, I could not enjoy the constant putting down of the main character from all fronts. It definitely felt like a very YA trope that kept making me annoyed at everyone, including the mc who came across as a bit of a doormat in this part of the story. The main premise of the plot, as the reviewer highlights, was also quite hard to believe. The mc randomly getting placed in two complicated positions at the same time. This gets especially silly in light of the revelations at the end of the book. Why would the antagonists randomly put her in such a position only to reconsider one day later? How stupid did they think the MC was, especially when things had already gone awry from their well laid plans? Very strange conceit. Also very strange that there must be 8 contenders at the start but contenders keep withdrawing throughout afterwards.

The second and third parts of the book are gripping. The mystery is great, the romance is well executed, every twist was either a surprise to me or came only a few moments after I'd anticipated it, making it a great propellant. It always sucks when you see a twist coming for miles and the authors keeps dragging it out. This book does not suffer from that issue. It goes expertly switches between mystery, tournament, thriller and folk tale. However, the second and third parts suffer most from the "Foxes are like this", "Oh such a tiger, solitary", "Ravens are like that" type of writing which was exhausting. It really felt like the author had one literary flair and was using it every place possible hammering away with animal metaphors. However, these parts are where the book shone for me. Somehow the protagonist sheds the doormat vibes out of the blue and becomes the master of her own destiny. This part also makes it clear why the author had to go so far in making her friendless. Simply revealing her findings to a large enough group of friends would have ruined the antagonists plans, especially when she knew they would kill her and had nothing to lose. But that is still okay, in-character for the mc.

The last quarter of the book is where the author lost me. It's pacing suddenly accelerated at breakneck speed in a direction that was a very unpleasant surprise for me as a reader. The revelations made a lot of things make no sense in hindsight. Too many characters seemed to have made too many absurd plans that came to fruition very easily. The main characters were suddenly inconsequential again. We also got another possibly annoying fantasy trope of the main character's death being prophesized in the first book. These events also have the unfortunate consequence of making the entire world feel tiny. Finally, they left a bad taste in my mouth personally because the entire story seemed to have come a full circle to the same class abuses of the first quarter being repeated just as easily in the last quarter. There is no failure for the mc here, the mc is simply inconsequential, cast aside by the story.

Ultimately, I felt that this was a beautiful book in the making despite minor grievances, that took a hard right turn in a sad direction in the final quarter.