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This was ok. I expected more fantasy, liked the drama and character interactions, not the world building.
The story consists of little mysteries around ghosts being solved thanks to the main character's magic and the emperor's authority, usually by learning about the ghost's bittersweet past. The mysteries are very simplified. It worked well with this kind of straight forward narrative though it got repetitive and sometimes boring.
The main characters reflect on their pasts and position within the palace throughout the story as they open up to each other little by little. This was my favorite thing about this book together with the small details in the dialogues and the interesting history and myths of the world (not fully explored in this volume though).
My main disappointment was the lack of enough information about the magic system. It's not like there aren't any explanations but I needed more to judge whether a situation is risky or not. I felt absolutely no tension or charm whenever magic was involved.