love how determined Ben and his family/circle are not just to survive, but to thrive.

This is exactly the appeal for me — and the fact that they all (possibly with the exception of Ben's mother!) recognise that this is a hellish world with great capacity to hurt them, and they do their best to help each other in the face of that.

I mean, I don't want to just put out a blanket recommendation for the series. I'm a white Australian woman who migrated to the UK, and the author is white as well. There are perspectives and experiences which neither of us will ever have — and others may find the books less 'comforting' than I do for that reason.

Xuya is great.