IMO what's going on here is in large part within the characters, alongside the action plot. It doesn't, there's tons going on, but Daisy's passivity could well give it that feel if you demand a take-charge protagonist. I've seen several reviews saying the book lacks plot and drive. She comes to look self-deceiving and weak by comparison to Ming Wei, the hired killer, who at least faces up to her own deeds and knows why she does them, and it's notable that Daisy-who for most of the book is entirely reactive and buffetted by events-only finds a moral core and takes control of what's going on when she's face to face with Ming Wei. She is deeply self-centred, with the extreme sensitivity to perceived slights that comes from not having much, she handwaves her own complicity in using magic powered by murder. What's intriguing is how Daisy is cast in the role of the naive heroine and moral centre, but it's apparent that she's no such thing. It's a deeply amoral dog-eat-dog world of politics, manipulation, cruelty, selfishness.
All of this is.not excused, but acknowledged in the three times repeated phrase, "A girl's gotta eat." The antagonists led by female mercenary Ming Wei torture too, and murder innocent people for money. The heroes also have no compunction about torturing their antagonists (off page) and kill ruthlessly including characters we've come to like. You may be thinking "KJ, is this in fact a book about a gang of drug dealers plus someone exploiting other people's horrific murders for their own convenience?" Yes, yes it is.
However, her own magic instead uses trinkets made by the faeries, which get their energy because each one was made via the sacrifice of a human being.
Daisy, our main protagonist, joins a group of manufacturer/suppliers of mana.
The premise is that most magicians drink mana, a highly addictive substance that causes serious physical damage, to get magical energy some people who aren't magicians are just hooked on the stuff which has the effect of maxi-cocaine. An extremely diverse (racially and queer rep) fantasy set in a 1920s city that's very like Chicago with prohibition and speakeasies, but for magic.
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