I'm curious about the YA distinction because I didn't see it as YA at all (which is not to say it isn't! It could be!). I know it's bildungsroman to the max, but there are plenty of epic fantasy series with young men as protagonists of a similar stripe that don't get criticized using that marketing category, if that makes sense? I'm pretty sensitive to the fact that people often use YA as a way to denigrate a title, which worries me because of the amount of women using YA to tell stories about girls is, really, incredibly important.

Also, I unfortunately don't know if I subscribe to dichotomy of liking and disliking a character. I read lots of stories where I really don't like a character, but I love their story? So the like/dislike breakdown works less for me. With Cold Magic, I really disliked Bee's attitude and I probably wouldn't ever be BFF with her, but that doesn't preclude me from liking her story or her relationship with Cat. I might also argue, if I had time, that the point is to dislike the characters a little. They're all young and a little too arrogant because it hasn't been stripped out of them by the full range of Adulthood Sucks; Then You Die experiences. The story is inherently about them losing that arrogance and growing into people who consider the world around them with more thoughtfulness, because they've found that the world can pretty much stomp them whenever it wants.

It's cool to not like the book, though! I don't think it's for everyone (no book can be!) but I'm afraid we're going to have to agree to disagree over comparisons with Cold Magic and The Hunger Games. ;)