Feathertide is a compelling blend of the mundane and the fantastical, in the form of a ‘coming of age’ fairytale.

Main character, Marea, is born with feathers and is hidden away in the basements of a brothel for most of her life, to avoid her being used or abused by an outside world that doesn’t understand her beauty. Unfortunately, this well-meaning protection leaves her full of shame and self-loathing for her physical differences, to the point of self-harm in an attempt to become ‘normal’. Thus her quest to find her father and understand her purpose is actually a journey of emotional self-discovery, as she learns to love herself and finds the world more diverse than she thought, and more forgiving than she is to herself.

There is a little romantic subplot, which I felt could have been much more than it was, and I would have loved to see more of the Sky-worshippers and mermaids, as it was the fantasy element that drew me to the book in the first place. However, the mermaids, bird people and psychics are not the focus of this beautifully spun story; they are merely the window dressing for an – actually quite simple – tale of learning to love yourself, and appreciate your differences, and those of others.

I’m not sure I would compare this to The Night Circus or The Bear and the Nightingale, as while richly written and imaginative, the plot and characterisations are less complex and the moral lessons more direct. However, I would definitely read more from Beth Cartwright – her beautiful feathered, and scaled, characters have stayed with me long after I put the book down, and I still think often and fondly of Marea and Sibel.


'Jewelled colours somersaulted through the sky, momentarily mapping out new constellations in the darkness. The swish of a rocket and the swirl of a wheel. Frost shimmered on the rooftops and left long, glistening trails along the pavements. The world stood – watchful, whisperful, wonderful – counting down the minutes to the end of something frayed and worn at the edges, and to the start of something woven with promise and hope. The old unravelling into the new, when another year was safely tucked up into the warm folds of memory.
A luminous star-filled sky; wish-ready.
It was the night I was born.'

– Beth Cartwright, Feathertide


Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Born covered in the feathers of a bird, and kept hidden in a crumbling house full of secrets, Marea has always known she was different, but never known why. And so to find answers, she goes in search of the father she has never met.

The hunt leads her to the City of Murmurs, a place of mermaids and mystery, where jars of swirling mist are carried through the streets by the broken-hearted.

And Marea will never forget what she learns there

This was a quick read but it still felt very slow to me. It was full of atmosphere but just a little too slow, still.
I think being compared to The Night Circus also wasn't very helpful as I just had such high expectations for it and I just felt let down.

This was a magical story of self discovery. Very descriptive writing but a bit flowery at times. A very light read but enjoyable nonetheless.

“A place full of memories can never be completely empty”

Born covered in the feathers of a bird, and kept hidden in a crumbling house full of secrets, Marea has always known she was different, but never known why. And so to find answers, she goes in search of the father she has never met.

The hunt leads her to the City of Murmurs, a place of mermaids and mystery, where jars of swirling mist are carried through the streets by the broken-hearted.

And Marea will never forget what she learns there.

I absolutely love fantasy books and this is a firm favourite which was filled with mystery, magic and love. The way Beth Cartwright creates the world-building so precisely is truly magical. One of my favourite characters was the Keeper of Hours but Marea, the protagonist, was portrayed in such an in depth way that you really got to see her development throughout the story.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

I love this book.
It's so full of feeling and hope, but it's not all brightness and happiness.
Marea's story starts right at the beginning and we are with her as she grows, as she learns, as she longs and as she loves.

Cartwright's writing is beautiful, and it takes you on a wonderful journey that starts off slowly, building to the day Marea leaves to find the father she never knew but who left her with the feathers that cover her body, and then speeding along to a magical ending.

The City of Murmurs is built wonderfully and I happily got lost in the streets and markets with Marea, here we meet more characters, each one of them bringing about the growth that she needs.

I really don't want to spoil the book for anyone yet to read it, so all I will say is take your time with it, let it pull you along in it's currents, whether they be air or water :)

Feathertide follows Mare, a young woman who was born covered in the feathers of a bird. Not knowing why she isn't accepted and chasing a missing part of herself, she goes in search of the father she never met. Her story brings her to mythical lands, introduces her to new people and unlocks who she really is.

The story begins with a brilliant hook of an opener that had me completely intrigued, it introduces the unique setting and beginnings of the main protagonist and is a precursor to the strange and fantastical elements of the story. Overall, I found the settings original and the characters all wonderfully woven with a mythical, intangible feel.

However, I struggled with the slower pace, particularly the first third of the story. There was an abundance of metaphors and similes throughout which, although a great tool for building the tone, I struggled with at times.

Once Mare reaches the City of Murmurs, things really pick up and here I was flying right alongside her. The strong character building takes over and I felt connected to each and everyone, their pain was my pain, their happiness was my happiness. Mare's character growth is subtle but powerful as she navigates love, family ties and chasing your dreams.

Feathertide is perfect for those who enjoy slow paced, subtle magical realism. The beautiful prose, haunting locations and magical characters of this whimsical coming-of-age story will stay with me for a long time.

A book that enchants from the moment you see the cover that is beautiful, it conveys that feeling of sea, magic, darkness and stories to know, when describing this book I find myself with a problem, and that is that I cannot describe it even if I wanted to, it is a mixture of situations and characters that you meet as the story progresses.

Feathertide, a debut novel from Beth Cartwright is one of those books that pulls you in by the cover and the intriguing plot. Born covered in feathers, Marea is kept hidden away in the basement of a brothel and kept secret from the world. Curious to find out more about her past, she goes in search of her father who remains a mystery. This is a fantastical fairy tale with mermaids, and mysterious mystic weather and fortune tellers. This is a coming of age story Beth explores sexuality, family secrets and lies, self acceptance with great details into the characters and the world. Beth also appeared on my blog, talking about her ideal bookshop. You can read the Q&A over on my blog (link is on my profile). Thanks to this book I'm about to start reading a 1000 page fantasy novel as I've finally gotten over my resistance to fantasy!

Thank you to Netgalley for supplying me this title..

This is one of those books where I couldn't describe the plot if I wanted to - I just couldn't do it justice in such a short post. But I'll try and outline some of the main aspects.
The story is of a girl called Maréa. She is born and raised by her single mother in a, ahem, <em>brothel. </em>Oh, and she has feathers. Not wings, but fine downy feathers across her body, and longer, thicker feathers along her back and shoulderblades.
Maréa has a relatively happy childhood. She's loved by her mother and all the women living in the brothel. She is, however, confined to the cellar for most of her time. The farthest she's ever travelled is the market, and this was only done on birthdays. Her mother simply wants to protect her, scared that her feathers will make her the recipient of unwanted attention.
Long story short, Maréa decides she wants to find her father. He had feathers, too, and perhaps he'd have some answers for her. But it won't be easy. The last - and only - time her mother ever met him was in a magical, faraway place, often referred to as the City of Water. Further, she never even knew his name.
Despite these clear obstacles, Maréa decides to head off across the ocean, alone. It's terrifying but so, so exciting, too! And oh, what the City had in store for her...
Let's just say the City of Water felt like such a mystical, whimsical place. Maréa and her feathers weren't strange - not when there were mermaids and Sky Worshippers around. Maréa soon settles in, making friends and even finding work and a place to live. She hears stories of all the wondrous people around, of things she had never dreamed of. And then she learns of the feathered people, the ones who sound so much like herself...
In this incredible city, Maréa learns a lot about herself as well as the world around her. She lives a life of adventure she never imagined for herself.
I know I probably didn't describe it very well, but there's just so much going on in this book. It had such a beautiful, fairytale feel to it, and I really enjoyed it. It was poetic and romantic at times, and also magical and wholly unique. I would definitely love to visit the City of Water. 4 stars!

I was immediately intrigued by the beautiful cover of this book and it's unusual premise and that feeling of curiosity continued throughout the book.

Beginning with Marea's childhood hidden in the basement of a brothel, you follow her story as she explores the limited world around her, guided by her mother, the whores and a professor to teach her about the wider world. Before too long, being told about the world isn't enough and Marea sets out to find her father and learn the truth about herself.

I was really excited to find out about the City of Murmurs but felt a little let down as, to me, it didn't seem quite as magical and wondrous as I was expecting from the blurb and the story slowed down for a while as Marea settles in and does a lot of dog walking. However, there are some beautiful descriptions of Marea's world and the City of Murmurs and I enjoyed the story as Marea met more characters and started to open herself up to love in different forms.

An intriguing, coming of age story that didn't quite draw me all the way in but was very enjoyable. I give this 3 out of 5.

I requested this originally as I thought it was going to be suitable for the children at my school library, so I spent the first few chapters wondering about the suitability of the book for my audience. (My readers only go up to 13.) Having decided I’d been mistaken, I went on to enjoy Marea’s story. Told through her eyes, we learn about her unusual upbringing, her uniqueness and her quest to find her father and understand her roots. The description was beautiful, transporting you to the worlds of the story, and the story telling lyrical, such that you are swept along with it. Although it’s not the kind of book I’d usually read, I found I really enjoyed it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I confess I didn't actually finish the book. It was very slow - atmospheric, magical but slow - and I lost interest before the plot could really get started. I think it'll appeal to readers who are wanting to let themselves be taken by the hand on a long and slow magical journey. I normally do too, this book just came to me at the wrong moment in time.

This is a magical and beautiful read.

The language grips you from the start with fantastic descriptions helping you to understand Marea and who she is. It makes it a beautifully relaxing and enjoyable read. her journey is well described and you really feel like you are on the journey with her. Beth describes the feather and how they react to their environment in a way that makes you wonder if she has feathers herself!

I really hope to read more by Beth Cartwright in the future.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC read.

What a beautiful book. Enthralled from start to finish! Language so lush and story so different from anything I have read before although I keep picturing Brian B,Essex shouting “Dive “for some reason

This book was an enchanting coming-of-age story full of magic. It follows a young girl who is half bird who grows up in a 'whorehouse' as she puts it. She grows up wondering why she is the way she is and halfway through the book leaves her island to go in search of answers.

The first half really touched me. And while the writing is very ethereal throughout, the narrative gets lost in the second half. Because the main character is very naive she sounds like a child which then clashes (for me) with the sexual encounters she goes through. I felt no real connection between her and her lovers so the pay off just wasn't there. The narration sounds similar throughout the book which makes her sound like a child well into her late teens, which is daunting.

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc of Feathertide.

It took me a while to get into this book and on a couple of occasions I was tempted to give up but I pushed on and it turns out it's a really lovely story.

I kept forgetting the main characters name as its only said half a dozen times as the story is told from her perspective.

The story was well written and not like any book I've read before. As I mentioned earlier if you can push through it it's certainly worth the effort

I found Feathertide easy to read, with an interesting plot and world. I'd have liked to learn more about the city/island she visits, and the doors and their contents, though.

This book was possibly the worst thing I've tried to read this year.

It is a fable like story about a little girl with feathers who grows up in a cellar in a brothel.
But everything is perfect, and everyone is so nice to her, and everyone loves her, and nice people teach her and as she grows she learns more about the world.
And she is so smart and amazing, and her feathers are so beautiful...
And she goes out into the world to discover who she is and everything is so easy.

And there are so many similes and everything is over described in overly flowery language, just in case we didn't understand how amazing and ephemeral everything is...

I am a big fantasy reader and this to me is not fantasy.
It isn't even a fairytale as there is no wicked witch / scary wolf / evil stepmother etc etc

Overall:
Zero tension
No real adventure
No character development
No emotional depth
Ridiculously overwritten

I found it to be self-indulgent nonsense.

I don’t read fantasy very much but, this book caught my eye and I thought I’d just try it. Well I’m glad I did, I throughly enjoyed it, it was refreshing and very readable. The main character was very likeable and I really wanted her to find her father and achieve some happiness.
It was a very enjoyable book to read without being bogged down to lots of fighting and battles as with a lot of fantasy books. This one was gentle and calm. The descriptions were wonderful and I could picture the boats and the cold.
I do hope Ms Cartwright writes more books like this as I would definitely read more.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

What made me want to read this book was the cover. This is such a beautiful cover. It talks about mermaids and winged beings and the place in-between, for once not heaven and earth, but air and water.

The book holds most basically a coming of age story, whereas the female narrator introduces us to how she grew up in the whorehouse where her mother worked and lived, and how she as a child with a visible difference at the same time was protected by this community of women but also sequestered and hidden away. Until the moment comes when our narrator has to set out and find her own way. Her one need is to find out who her father was or is.

We then see her settle in the City of Miracles where many things are possible and many things shift and can be negotiated. We enter into a period where time shifts through the sentences and our main character finally names herself as Marea.

Becoming the agent of her own story, she also has to accept the consequences of her actions and live with them for the rest of her life.

The book holds beautifully written language and at times amazingly woven sentences that take you out of a linear perception of time, magical realism at work and play.

Also, the allusion and inclusion of mythical respectively mythological figures such as the Keeper of the Hours or Sybil and the dogs are very well woven into the story and are part of its charm.

However, and this refers now to the eARC that I received from the publisher, about half way into the book there is this one chapter that builds up as being absolutely pivotal, but, in the way it is construed it is anti-climactic unlike anything I have ever come across.

Afterwards, it took me a while to get back into the story, but the charm was broken. Also the language that until then had been carefully crafted all of a sudden showed a lack of attention and some of the images and metaphors used just took me completely out of the story.

As a well-seasoned fantasy reader I am also used to have a sound motivation for the main character. In this book, however, and I am not saying that it should, but, the main motivation of the character, to set out and find her father as soon as she is old enough was for me not substantiated enough. But then, this book is in my eyes more a story about coming of age and finding your place and your people, having to live with being visibly different to what is considered to be the norm than it is a fantasy novel.

I am curious to see what the author writes next. She has a lot of talent.