This is a very lore-heavy story in a good way. Especially as it pertains to Sally's familial connections and the royal family the Purple Crane is centered around, there's a lot of rich information to think about. I was left curious for more on both, though I would have liked to get more information about the royal family.
The story moves very quickly. This makes it easy to follow and understand the goals, but it also makes things feel less impactful, particularly with certain emotional beats. At the same time, I feel like the final section in particular balances the pacing quite well overall: giving just enough insight into the place Sally comes from.
Sally is clearly a multi-layered character, with some nice recontextualizing of the protagonist's goals and interests. The first chunk of the story had me on the fence about Sally, but by the end, it was pretty easy to root for her. And the cursed queen was especially sympathetic.
There are plenty of locations visited throughout the story to justify this as a travel/journey-based story. My only real complaint in that area is wanting to spend more time with the elven castle, but that can easily be fixed with future appearances.
Also the rock golem minions were very personable and funny.