A good start, a YA fantasy with both unique ideas and familiar concepts.

The Kinder Poison is a character-driven fantasy following Zahru, a girl living a humble and simple life. She yearns for much more. A case of forged identity plunges her amidst a conflict between three siblings vying for a powerful throne. Moreover, Zahru is chosen as a sacrifice in a ritualistic pilgrimage across the desert. The siblings each pursue her in hopes of winning the throne via her demise. On this journey, she goes from hapless to fighting for her life against increasingly narrow odds. Zahru's growth as the lead character and narrative voice is easy to observe and unfolds naturally. The aforementioned three siblings are also appealing characters- though a bit black and white in their initial motivations. There is a good brother, evil brother, and a sister who is somewhere in-between. As the story moves forward, their development deepens and changes. This is a good debut, ripe with thoughtful detail and descriptive world-building. But it also has some moments of slowness wherein I found myself easily losing touch with some of the side characters. The linearity of the story and one large plot (as opposed to smaller sub-plots) make this book best suited to lengthy and focused reading sessions as opposed to shorter sessions. I think the writing style and tension of the plot could have been more sensational and fast-moving to make this a more easily marathon-able read, especially in the first half. The premise sounds thrilling but the actual execution is more driven by detail and exposition at the expense of a frantic pace or convincing sense of the main character's danger. But that approach has its own appeal and the groundwork is set up well for a sequel.