So good! The story focuses on Nona, a little girl about to be hanged for murder, who is saved from death by a strange nun and taken to the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where she learns how to use her unique combination of skills to deal death and destruction. 
 I liked that the story was about really young children, but wasn't dumbed down. The kids are smart and tough, and they sometimes make poor decisions; not because they are stupid, but because they are human beings who make mistakes. This makes this book far superior to the vast majority of YA books out there, where everything is about romance, jealousies, and really obvious plot lines with massive twists that you know are coming from two sentences into the book. I don't even know if this book is technically YA or not, but whatever, if you're an adult, you will enjoy it. 
 This book has no romance! It has many complex and varied relationships between girls that come across as real female interactions. There is not an outfit change every page, or ridiculous musings on attractiveness, which frankly drive me insane. It was also a really refreshing change to see all these female characters who didn't have massive, secret abuse in their background which scarred them for life. 
 But, more than all of this, I'm really interested in the world that Mark Lawrence has created and have all these questions that I need to resolve. Like where is the moon? And is Nona a full four-blood? Is the prophecy real or bogus? Does the ark work? Why is everything frozen? All of these things and more are touched on, but not revealed completely, so you know that there's this whole world out there, and you can feel that there is a lot going on that you have no idea about, which makes this a brilliant first book in a series. You're left wanting more in the best way. There aren't huge information dumps that overwhelm you. You're given enough detail to get a sense of Nona's place in her current surroundings, but because she doesn't really know anything about the world at large, you don't either. 
 I could keep talking about this book, but I won't. Go read it! Enjoy it! Tell me what you think :)