A common occurrence with YA authors (and especially YA fantasy authors) is the inability to surprise an audience with plot twists or events that unfold. As someone that reads a lot of the genre and has seen this pretty consistently, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Strike the Zither did not follow this path. He's writing is unique and draws the reader into the world. This story is a loose retelling of the Three Kingdoms but readers not familiar with it should have no problem with this book. I loved the dynamic feminist cast of characters and especially loved how smart our protagonist was. Rather than being helpless, she was ridiculously cunning and always had her wits about her. My only grievance (hence the four stars) is that I often feel books can be a really strong novel but are often drawn out into a duology or series, as is the case here.