I really liked Griffith's invention of the gemacce relationship - but I started off reading it on the basis of it being more historical fantasy than it actually was. And the thing about pregnancy and herbs likewise - in Tamora Pierce's teen novels she is always quite careful to put in a bit about being able to choose whether / when to get pregnant, which I read as aspirational and/or optimistic but very cool, rather than irresponsible.

Having said that, the pacing felt slow to me, very much as you say. I am quite likely to read a sequel but it's not a given.

Other Griffiths books rank amongst some of the best feminist science fiction I have read - Ammonite is classic explorer sf set on an only-female planet, and Slow River (which I haven't re-read yet) is great dystopian cyber-punk stuff I reckon. (All of which helps me to read Hild as more counter-factual than it is cracked up to be.)