I got this book during a free promo at work. The premise, a world where an A.I. (Talis) has taken control of world politics by making any person who becomes a world leader surrender a child as a hostage who would be murdered if they sought war was intriguing. The story itself is told from the perspective of one of the hostages, Greta, daughter of the queen of the Pan Polar States (Canada, 400 years in the future). The story plays out in a very unexpected way with a complex and interesting love story in the backburner. 
 I found Erin Bow's world thorough and delicately constructed. While the charecters themselves were not great (sometimes confusing and distracting), with the exception of Da-Xia, this future version of our world was fascinating. I found the last few chapters especially different and strongly written, something you don't see happen much in books nowadays. 
 The book does not end as expected and like everything else unexpected in this book I think it's one of its core strengths.