The audio narrator had a great voice and she did a good job, especially given what she had to work with.



Main review: I'm not going to rate this. I ended up DNFing about halfway through because the actual story is basically unreadable. I was really looking forward to this book because it seemed like such a cool premise and (admittedly this misunderstanding is on me) I though it was about the lost island continent by the same name. If it was supposed to be the latter, then it was only a fleeting allusion.



This was an experimental story, the focus of which was on the genderfluidity of the society of Mu where neonatal pronouns are used as a norm and no differentiation is made between genders. I've seen similar ideas explored in some fantastic sci-fi novels which really push thought provoking new considerations and deal with the subject in a nuanced and coherent way. This book did not. It was confused to the point of incoherence. And in case you think it was the pronouns - mu, mer, mem - I was having difficulty with, I can assure you that that was an easy switch IN SPITE of the way the author wrote. Although I'll admit that after yet another rambling sentence which seemed to only flirt with basic sentence structure, the impact of changing all the pronouns lost it's punch and began to seem rather silly in this context.



This is an experiment which failed. The world building is very week and the author has failed to extend her imagination beyond typical gender roles despite everyone being gender fluid. Which brings me to my second point. Perhaps I understand something different by the term gender fluid but it seems to me that the term embraces the idea that we all have varying degrees of female, male and everything else within our psychological make up. Some people are pulled more towards one polarity than another, some slide up and down the scale, and some even sit off the scale somewhere else. All of this is normal and separate from biological sex. But what you've got here is a society that is agender: they don't recognise gender constructs and they try (and fail horribly) not to recognise biological sex (which opens a whole can of worms about sexual attraction which I am just not going to get into.) My point is, without the perceived norm of polarities, there is no sliding scale, and no sitting off to one side of it. So the entire argument becomes defunct. At which point, the story flags because it's been made such a centre piece. Or at least, that's how it read to me.



The rest of the plot - one of sibling rivalry where spoiler alert, the sibling with a penis is on the road to a fully misogynistic society of mer own - is pretty basic and pedestrian. There wasn't enough decent characterisation or nuance to keep my interest.



I hate DNFing. I don't like to dislike books, especially someone's debut. And this book did not annoy me, it just left me baffled as to what story the author was actually trying to tell. Honestly I think maybe the author had some big ideas which could have really paid off, but this book fell into the category of 'subject currently outstrips your skill level'. Books have their own time to be written and this was written too soon for her command of the craft.

DNF for a book described as gender non conforming this book was set in a world that was still extremely sexist using neopronouns does not remove the fact that people who could have children "carriers" were described as having no other role. This is not the book it is marketed as and I do not wish to continue.

I think this was a case of "it's not you, it's me". The story is trying to do new and interesting things within a familiar plot style, but ultimately I failed to fully invest (and it may have been my fault for going the audio route for this type of story, even though I loved the narration itself). I wouldn't stray away from recommending this to people who enjoy messy sibling rivalry-esque stories, interesting takes on gender in fantasy etc, but ultimately it wasn't for me

This book is part of the Mu Chronicles Trilogy - a YA Fantasy series.
The ancient Island of Mu🏝️ appears to be quite alluring at first. As I went deeper though I found the overall story to be moving in a quite animated manner. To precisely let you know - it felt like I was reading the script of a screenplay that was based on some book. There could have been more depth in the story to help us understand the behaviour of certain characters. How do they follow the seniors, why were they punished e.t.c? Felt like a lot of it was missing.
Moreover the "Populating the earth" concept was a bit ugh - going into the caves n doing baby-making: well not exactly the story I was looking for 😅😅

P.s the names Kaori and Kairi sound very similar in the audiobook, which keeps you confused half the time. If that was intentional - mission accomplished!

& with that being said I can only give this book a 1/5⭐ for intriguing me to pick this up by myself.

Beneath the Burning Wave is a YA-fantasy novel. That deals with a gender fluid community, this I struggled with more than I had expected to, leaving me with a mellow feeling about this book.

The storyline follows twins Kaori and Kairi, who grow up on the ancient island of Mu, where magic flows and twins are forbidden. All their lives, they’ve been haunted by a generational prophecy that predicts that they’re doomed to bring their community to ruin. Let's say a war or segregation of sorts. One of them is born of water, one of fire and natural rivalry will bring the island to its knees in flames and waves.

However, straightforward the plot seems to be, I struggled to follow, get into it and feel connected to the characters. As we kept jumping what felt like from past to present or feeling like the author skipped important information. I kept thinking, why is this happening so out of the blue, what was the reason behind this or that.?

Now because the characters don't conform to he, she, or them, I felt so confused for the majority of the time. Also, the fact that the main characters themselves have similar names (such as Kaori and Kairi) made it even more difficult to listen to the audiobook.

Overall, I feel like Beneath the Burning Wave has the potential to be fantastic for a certain audience, however, and not for me.

I appreciate Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Keep reading.

Beneath the Burning Wave is an experimental YA-fantasy novel that I deeply respect and appreciated for everything it set out to do, but fear will only fit a very niche audience. As much as I hoped to be part of that niche target, I struggled more than I had expected to, leaving me with an overall mixed experience with this book.

What I loved:
We follow the story of Kaori and Kairi, twins who grow up on the ancient island of Mu, where magic flows and “gender is as fluid as the waves”. All their lives, they’ve been haunted by a generational prophecy that predicts they’re doomed to bring their community to ruin. One of them is born of water, one of fire, and natural rivalry will bring the island to its knees in flames and waves. Caught between their natural rivalry and ingrained tradition, and their desire to let peace and freedom rules, Kaori and Kairi must make a decision that will shape the future of their entire community.
I’m always supportive of unique and memorable fantasy, that dares to explore important themes, and take risks in the process. Especially with the YA-age-range, too few authors and publishers dare to push boundaries (even when it comes to diverse fiction), because it’s “less marketable”. Beneath the Burning Wave takes that risk and tells a compelling story in a completely unique way. The use of neo-pronouns (using the gender neutral “mu-mem” instead of he/she/them) throughout the entire book is something I’ve never seen done before in YA-fantasy. It slots well into the rest of Mu’s interesting world, infused with elements of lesser known Egyptian and Japanese mythology to create a setting and culture I kept wanting to explore further. I hope the later instalments in the series will continue to expand upon that.

What I didn’t love:
As much as I was invested and intrigued by the worldbuilding, I cannot say the same for the storyline and the characters. Mostly, this was due to the overwhelming feeling of confusion I felt throughout my reading experience. Beneath the Burning Wave is not an easily accessible novel, largely due to an already confusing story, but also due to some of the writing-choices. As much as I liked the idea of the neo-pronouns used, it did add to my confusion to distinguish (already similar) characters. Especially when the word “mu” is used to refer to “he”, “she”, “they/them”, but also the island itself. The fact that many have similar names (such as Kaori and Kairi) added to my confusion, and frankly made it impossible for me to listen to the audiobook alone, as I was constantly confused as to who was speaking.
As a small disclaimer: language-barrier may have contributed on my part, as English isn’t my first language. The Dutch approach to pronouns is different from the English and doesn’t even have the equivalent to a “they/them” pronoun, so this may have made it grammatically harder on me as a non-native speaker.
The second thing that confused and bothered me was how “binary” the story felt, despite its emphasis on (gender-)fluidity. Although there are no gender-pronouns and characters can switch between different the two, there are quite distinct male and female gender-roles within the story, that go beyond biology. There’s still an interesting discussion to be had here, but it didn’t feel quite like the complete fluidity that was advertised…

Overall, I feel like Beneath the Burning Wave has the potential to be a great read, if you know what you’re getting into. If you’re a YA fantasy-reader, with an established interest in this topic and are open to more experimental style of writing; give this a try. If you’re looking for an approachable “introductory” fantasy-story, this may not be the perfect match for you.

Thanks to One More Chapter/Harper UK for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.