Aerie

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this duology, and I really liked getting to know the characters. I liked the embedded commentary about psychiatric hospitals being detrimental to well-being.

I found this duology's treatment of race to be disappointing. It felt like an afterthought, for Jason to suddenly reveal to the reader in Aerie “By the way, one of my moms is black, and I have seen people be racist to her” and for Aza to make a very quick comment that during the year she spent being perceived as a black woman, she learned that white people are still racist. I feel like there was a missed opportunity for Aza and Eve to have had some conversation pertaining to race, in the year between the books' main action.

I also found it frustrating that Jason doesn't know which of his moms gave birth to him, and that thread was left hanging. Was he adopted? Was he made from an egg from one mom, fertilized by someone else, and gestated in the other mom? I want to know more.

I really appreciated the normalization of same-sex parents in this duology. Jason having two moms is not a source of anything dramatic—no homophobic violence, and no one acting weird about it. It's refreshing to see LGBTQ characters, especially lesbians and queer women, be present in a story, and not have the story be about coming out or interfacing with homophobia.

Overall, I think that Magonia and Aerie were really good! I want more stories about Magonians and Rostrae, especially Jik! I want to read about the Rostrae-led revolution in Magonia! I want to read about Dai's life before meeting Aza! I want to read the Flock's realization that he had to leave Zal! I want more!