It's interesting to read a book where the author actively warns you that you might not like it. This is indeed a very odd, short novella. It focuses solely on Auri, preparing for the arrival of Kvothe and deals with her daily activities up to that point. Right from the get-go you realize how broken and shattered Auri is, even if you had no prior experience with her from Rothfuss's other books. It's amazing how she survives alone while devoting so much of her attention to how inanimate objects should be placed all over the underground world she lives in. Though, with names like Mantle, Tree, Foxen, and Fulcrum, and having seen the magic of The Name of the Wind, you suspect there may be something deeper there. Very little happens in this story- there is one character and almost no plot, but there is a soft, subtle magic in language, in repetition, in the melancholic musings of a young woman all alone. It is a book for slightly broken people and for those who can spare the time for a slow, achingly sweet story that is a poem written in prose.