The floating world

I Came for the Floating Cities. I Stayed for the Emotional Devastation.

 Review – The Book That Sky-Mined My Soul

I opened this book because it promised me floating cities and Korean celestial folklore.

I stayed because it wrecked my entire emotional infrastructure.

Seriously. I thought I was signing up for Ghibli aesthetics and demon-slaying glam.

Instead, I got soul damage and a codependent attachment to two fictional characters I can no longer live without.

🗡️ What It’s Giving

🎮 Final Fantasy meets demon-slaying duty

🌫️ Ghibli weirdness…but make it stabby

🖤 Shadow and Bone angst…times a thousand

✨ Floating cities, sky-mines, cursed underworlds, train assassins, and emotional trauma wrapped in folklore-frosted dreamscapes

From page one, this book whispered, “you’re not ready.”

Spoiler: I was not.

🌟 Let’s Talk About Ren and Sunho

Ren is sunshine, rage, and circus girl sparkle with a silver-light punch. She wants peace. The world says absolutely not.

Sunho is brooding, memory-wiped, and accidentally tender.

His job? Hunt the glowing girl.

His travel buddy? The glowing girl.

🫢 Cue: slow-burn angst with emotional whiplash.

Their chemistry is the kind where you scream at the page, throw the book, pick it back up, and sob because he actually sees her. She lets him in. He stays.

Who allowed that level of softness?? Who??

I’d like a word.

⚔️ Worldbuilding: Ethereal with Bite

This world is lush, cinematic, and built like someone stitched together a Ghibli dream with a dystopian nightmare and then sprinkled it with myth. You’ve got:

Floating sky cities

Demon-infested wastelands

Toxic clouds

Architecture magic meets weird science

Flashbacks that gut you in the best way

Yes, the pacing slows down after the blood-soaked, claws-out opening, but that’s only because it’s busy sneaking into your feelings. It's not filler — it’s soul-level setup. And once it hits? It hits.

🧠 Themes That Sneak Up and Snap Your Spine

Grief and how it lingers like smoke

Identity and the cost of hiding

Memory, pain, and how softness is a rebellion

Found family, forced proximity, and that one scene where she glows and he just… stares 🫠

This isn’t just fantasy. It’s therapy in disguise. With knives.

 

I thought I was just here for vibes and aesthetic magic.

Turns out, I was here to suffer.

I haven’t stopped thinking about Ren and Sunho since I closed the last page. And when book two comes out?

If it doesn’t arrive fast enough, or if it hurts them?

I will riot.

(I’ll also preorder it. Immediately.)

If you're craving a fantasy that feels like skyfire, sorrow, stardust, and sass — with emotional stakes higher than the floating cities — this one’s for you.

Bring tissues.

And possibly therapy.

 P.S.

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Amazon:The floating world