Blood at the Root

I was a little skeptical at the beginning, but I just got so absorbed in the world that I kept going. And that was the right decision! The best parts: the writing in dialect, the suspicious people, the twists and the magical school tropes.
I love the way he wrote in dialect. A few times I had to stop and reread the line out loud to hear it, but I liked that because it really made this world come alive. It reminded me of Wuthering Heights with the level of dialect. It is hard to know who to trust because there are so many people with so many of their own goals. That lack of trustworthiness helped connect me to Malik. There were a few twists that I saw coming and some that I didn't. By the end of the book, those twists all came together logically. Several of them are painful, but Malik is determined, so I am excited to see what happens next in book two.
There were several places in the book that reminded me of pieces of Harry Potter and then the author turned that piece into something special in his world. So I really enjoyed recognizing a trope or characteristic and then seeing how Williams used that creatively in his book. He doesn't overdo it and it isn't obvious to the point of campy. So it is a perfect balance in my opinion.
I enjoyed the various languages that show up and the history moments that we see as well. That was another thing that helped create the world. It gave me a hint that there was more to come and we were only seeing a snippet.
The romance parts of the book were not well done. The friendships got better by the end of the book. I am hoping to see some of the interpersonal relationships improve in the next book.
So great world building, characters with strong motivations, and lots of interesting moments to create the overall plot. I can't wait for book 2.