Absolutely loved this! A diverse cast, sea monsters, pirates, LESBIAN PIRATES!!! It's like this book was absolutely made for me. 
 My favorite things about this [okay EVERYTHING was my favorite thing about this, but at least a few of them in particular] were (view spoiler)[1) watching Cassandra's slow slide into moral ambiguity but also the fact that she was becoming more of a 'monster' to try to protect Swift and 2) how the relationship between her and Swift was handled. I liked how it explicitly stated that they were not on equal footing and it wouldn't be fair to either one of them, but to Cas most of all, if they were to actually become romantically involved at this point. It's clear they care about each other still, but they're smart enough not to rush into anything toxic. And that's just so refreshing to me because I've seen a lot of toxic relationships in books with huge power imbalances that are held up as like the height of romance and it honestly gets so frustrating. I can't wait to see what happens between them in the second book, especially considering the bombshell that got dropped at the end of this one! (hide spoiler)]