I really enjoyed this book! The story was beautifully written, Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

4.25⭐️
This book was so much more than I anticipated and was far from just another fantasy book. This was a really powerful urban fantasy with a rich, expertly crafted world and an equally powerful subtext. This book reminded me of speculative books like The Power, Vox and The Change that are female centric, make comments on real issues such as discrimination because of race and class, that mean something and pose a world not so different from our own.

I loved the three female characters and their intertwining stories at the centre of this book. They were real, with real problems and real conflicts, straddling multiple spheres of society. They weren’t without fault, some more so than others, but I still felt compelled to root for them in the face of everything.

The mythology inspired elements of this were beautiful I’m curious to see what happens next and can’t wait for book 2 in the Drowned Worlds series. If you like your fantasy books modern and meaningful but still magical then this is the book for you!

Fathomfolk was an exciting new read, that was fabulously written and felt like I was diving into a new fairytale.

I loved the setting of a water city where both the fathomfolk and humans live together, it definitely was a driving force in the book.

I also admired the developed characters and how wonderfully different they were to each other, they each had individuality when sometimes the lines can become a bit blurred.

I loved the politics that came into play during this book and it really helps drive the plot forward and make it exciting alongside the atmosphere that was created.

My one concern is the romantic relationship as it felt very rushed and not realistic, however with everything else being so thrilling it was a minor problem as a whole.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an e-arc of this book

I enjoyed reading Fathomfolk. The world building is very rich, imaginative and well crafted. I was immersed into this underwater/partially submerged world, where humans coexist with fathomfolk in a city where technology blends with mythical beings and magic. The imagery is exceptional - I found the writing refreshing, fluid and captivating. Great debut novel - it could’ve done with a bit more editing and perhaps more focus on specific chapters that seem a bit ‘unrealistic’ (even for a fantasy novel 🙂) - for instance Tiankawi is described at first from Nami’s pov and we get to find out how enormous the city is - a metropolis half submerged, half erected on really tall buildings, where humans get to enjoy the perks of high-end technology in a decaying world and at the expense of the Fathomfolk, second class citizens, allowed their place in the city just so they can fuel the ever consuming machine that the city was. Towards the end of the book, in the cable car chapters, I had the feeling that the entire metropolis was reduced to a little coastal town where a few cable cars could save everyone from drowning, in the aftermath of the earthquake. What seemed enormous (to a very naive girl who doesn’t really grow out of her naivety - no substantial character development for Nami unfortunately) suddenly appeared unrealistically small. It was likely intentional - and probably meant to symbolise the limitations of the main characters and how powerless they were in those circumstances. The scenes and chapters at the start of the book - about the mayhem, disorder and panic following the terrorist attacks at the boats and preceding the curfew were some of the best - I felt very claustrophobic and uncomfortable reading that part - I felt as if I was in the middle of the crowd, crushed and surrounded by panic. I also would have preferred completely new and imaginary beings, but I understand the author’s preference for mythical, albeit it does feel a bit romanticised.
The novel feels very topical - it beautifully and painfully tackles actual and very real topics: prejudice, oppression, racism, immigration, slavery and trafficking, class-differences, politics, conflicting situations and very imperfect characters, well, apart from Kai :). Mira ties the 3 stories together, but the events unfold mainly through Nami’s pov - since she sets in motion most of the events, through a set of very poor decisions. Her naivety is explicable - and the Drawbacks appeal is understandable. Cordelia was my favourite character. I really enjoyed reading the book and will definitely read the sequel. Very good debut from a very promising author. Thanks to NetGallery for the ARC!

Fathomfolk by @elizachanwrites was absolutely brilliant! I loved the worldbuilding and how unique it was; and the multiple povs to show how people with different backgrounds experience a city was so intriguing to me.
We follow three of the fathomfolk as they navigate through the city: Mira the half siren head of the chinthe or city guard, Nami the waterdragon as she settles into a new life in an unfamiliar city and Cordelia, a seawitch with fingers (or tentacles) in many pies across the city 👀. We see as all these lives are inextricably linked, and how the actions of one person can affect the lives and livelihoods of hundreds.

I really really enjoyed this book, it was so enjoyable to read, and the multiple points of view really helped to emphasise how the class disparity within the book affected the characters and subsequently their decisions. I particularly enjoyed Namis pov, as it showed (at least to me) how easily a young person's views can be manipulated by those they surround themselves with; and spoke to how easily someone can be radicalised without even realising. Miras pov was lovely to read as well, the visual difference between where she grew up and where she lives now; and how this affected her career and relationships! Cordelias pov really showed how far she was affected by the discrimination against Fathomfolk, and how far she was willing to go to protect her children from that.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it!! Though the end did make me cry like a lot but it was a fitting end for the book - the epilogue did leave me thinking there may be a sequel 👀👀 so I'd adore to be considered for an arc for that should it be coming!

Fathomfolk is multi-faceted. I immediately fell in love with the world. How above the water the society is convinced they need to perpetuate this illusion that everything is great. And it might be, but only for the humans not for the Fathomfolk. This is a book devoted to exploring sacrifice, class, and oppression. With multi-tiered politics, diplomacy, and deals, Fathomfolk is complex. We see the ways in which Cordelia, Mira, and Nami are all balancing their family, their city, their ideas of home with what options are open to them.

I adored this book! I feel as though there is a distinct lack of fantasy books that incorporate sea creatures and underwater realms and this most definitely filled those gaps! Mira was a wonderfully strong but flawed protagonist and I really enjoyed watching the narrative play out and the relationship develop with her sister in law. This is great for fans of Powerless.

The things that drew me to Fathomfolk was the setting, and that was definitely the highlight of the book. Tiankawi, is a partially submerged city, built upwards as the sea levels rose. Humans have obviously messed up this world too, with pollution forcing the fathomfolk from their underwater cities. Somehow humans still have ended up on top, lording over those with gills, controlling them with pakalots.

Eliza Chan has collected together a menagerie of water-based creatures to populate her world, drawing on Asian and European mythology. Sirens, kelpies, water dragons, selkies, kappa and a sea witch all call Tiankawi home.

It’s a two tier society, the fathomfolk treated as second class citizens. They must wear a bracelet that prevents them from doing harm to humans, even in self-defence. One of the drivers for the plot is that a bill is being prepared to allow for self-defence, and it shied away from actually exploring that lack of bodily autonomy that must come with not being able to say no. You would expect more violence and abuse against fathomfolk than there was.

Things are definitely not great for fathomfolk, but even the things that are presented as horrifying come with consent. It’s not much of a choice, but it’s still a choice. With the pakalots, humans could just force fathomfolk to do things. And this lack of terrorising from the humans means what eventually happens with the Drawbacks comes across as extreme. We’re meant to be rooting for the fathomfolk, but they’re made to look like the bad guys. There’s just as much prejudice between the different fathomfolk too, dragons being well respected and those who can’t shapeshift being at the bottom of the hierarchy.

You can’t fight hate with violence. That is definitely the message trying to break through all this. It doesn’t take much to find examples from the real world, you oppress a group long enough, some people will resort to violence. Some people will use causes as an excuse for violence too, blame refugees for society’s ills. We even put them in floating ghettos not fit for purpose. What violent protest doesn’t help is the innocent people caught up in it, on either sides.

But despite the big ideas and interesting world-building, I did not connect with the characters, and the first half of the book was slow.

I guess it was hard to fathom everyone’s motivations. Cordelia supposedly did everything to protect her family, but she didn’t even seem to like her son that much and surely keeping her head down and using her bargains for her children would have made more sense. The reasons she is so hard on Mira do become clear, but for much of the book she’s just ruthless and mean.

The Drawbacks are supposedly the resistance fighting for the rights of fathomfolk, yet everything they do makes things worse. Lynette wasn’t developed enough as a character so her decision at the end made no sense. And I can’t work out how the city is structurally fine once it’s all over.

And Nami, the naïve fool. There’s totally a place for characters like her, where they get led astray and groomed by charming men. Perhaps if it were over a longer period, it would have seemed more realistic for Nami to carry on trusting, but she is oblivious, happy to forgive for a pretty face and not much personality. Even if she didn’t come to her senses, I would have liked someone to have intervened to highlight how it was an unhealthy, one-sided relationship.

I loved the social commentary on this book. Getting to see it from the POV of 3 different characters, all of them female, was the cherry on top. The author has managed to convey how xenophobia, racism, classicism and general bigotry differently affects different people and drives them to react in opposite manners. Sometimes, to the detriment of our better judgement, even.
Also loved how queer normative Tiankawi's society was, though it felt a bit disappointing that none of the main charaters seemed to be queer themselves (I totally shipped Nami and Eun, though)
The worldbuilding was a bit lacking, in my opinion, there were bits I felt were a bit too Disney-esque (not a fan, sorry) and scattered, with no real purchase I could hold onto.
The writing style was unfortunately not my jam - we all have our preferences - and the plot felt a little weaker for that, with twists that were far too obvious (Cordelia, Kai, Dan...). I did love that little detail at the end and it got me curious to know who picked that damn stone.
All in all, I found it an entertaining read, as in it did not bore me in the least, but it was far from excellent. The social commentary was indeed what I most loved about it, with some of the characters' insights being extremely moving and relatable.

𝗙𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗞
—𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻 | 𝟰🌟

“𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘶𝘨𝘭𝘺. 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘦.”

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲:
✨Fantasy
✨Asian inspired setting
✨Amalgamation of folklore
✨Multi POV
✨Detailed world building
✨Exploration of race, class, immigration, and how they intersect

𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀:
Set in Tiankawi, 𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗮 is a recently promoted captain of the border guard, despite her undesirable half-siren status. 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗶, an aristocratic water dragon, is exiled to Tiankawi where she finds herself drawn to a revolution that will shake the city. 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗮 is the wife of the Minister of Defence, working behind the scenes to catapult her husband to roaring societal heights. And 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗮 is a seawitch, with tentacles in everybody’s business. These women work towards 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 they live in.

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
This was such an 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀, and 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 story which was 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 and 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱. I found it quite difficult to orientate myself in the first half of the book, but by the second half I found myself 𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗱 by the waves of a story that, like our tides, peaked and ebbed within its pages.

The folklore woven into this book seems like it has worldwide inspiration. Sirens, sea witches, titans, kelpie’s, kappas, and dragons work in tandem with the author to deliver a fantasy that has echoes of 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗱 wrapped in an Asian inspired setting of tall buildings, tea houses, market stalls, and more.

Honestly I was 𝗱𝗮𝘇𝘇𝗹𝗲𝗱 by the world building. It was so 𝘃𝗮𝘀𝘁 and 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗱 and 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴! From the slums to the upper echelons residence. From the apothecary to the council meetings. From the fine fabric to frayed threads. I’m genuinely 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝘄𝗲 of such rich storytelling.

But the real 𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹 of this story is it’s exploration of class, race and immigration. The constant and sheer futility of striving for equality contained echoes of a real world, and it was easy to become angry at the injustice of not only the story’s circumstances, but the real life inspiration that it’s drawn on. This is why I would describe this as a 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆, because underneath the fantastical mirage is a raw portrayal of issues that currently plague worldwide civilization.

𝗞𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵 | 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗵 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘆

Inspired by East Asian mythology this book offered a world unlike any I've read about before and I felt the world building was very strong. I was drawn to the main characters and became more invested in each of them as the story progressed. I'll be really interested to see where it goes next.

I really wanted to love this. The cover is gorgeous and I LOVE books that encorporate mythology.

Whilst there are lovely elements to this book - I just didnt love the chatacters. I was not invested in their stories at all and found the constant switching of POV frustrating. Cordelia's sections were my least favourite by far - I hated her attitude.

I've heard good things about Eliza Chan so won't write her off - but this particular title wasnt for me.

Fathomfolk was a wonderful story steeped in folklore, filled with politics, romance and some truly epic fight scenes. I loved everything from the characters to the worldbuilding and am incredibly eager to get my hands on the next book.

Set predominantly in Tiankawi, the supposed beacon of human and fathomfolk cohabitation. But the reality is Tiankawi is set on a knife's edge. Fathomfolk are seen as lesser, scum and the majority of humans treat them as second class citizens, something not helped by the fact they are legally required to wear bracelets that mean they aren't able to even think of harming a human in any way. They are resigned to the depths, the underside of the city, covered in polluted water that leaves them with gill rot, while the humans mostly live a life of luxury in towering skyscrapers. It's a city on the brink, one where any slight misstep could cause a tsunami of issues, and Chan does a fantastic job of showing not just the depravity of the city now, but how it came to be like that. It's a story filled with racist and colonial themes that are shown through the humans treatment of the fathomfolk, but also through the folk themselves. How even within themselves their are hierarchies, and the folk that fall on the bottom of the ladder are looked down on not only by the humans, but their own people.

It's an easy book to bring out your anger, not only at the injustices, how some of the characters are treated, but at some of the decisions the characters themselves make. Nami in particular was a character that verged on the annoying for me. I understood her need to try and change things, her anger and disbelief at how her people were being treated with seemingly nothing being done about it. She's your stereotypical youth who comes barging into situations, situations that are way over her head and her decision making ends up causing more issues than actually helping. Mira was almost the polar opposite. She has risen through the ranks, despite her siren heritage and though she absolutely wants to see change in how the folk are treated, she believes that a slower, quieter approach would work best. One that crept up on the humans rather than blasting them in the face. She's someone who has faced racism from both human and the folk, and knows that the world won't be changed in a day. Our final POV character is Cordelia, a sea witch, someone on the bottom of the fathomfolk barrel. She is someone who does her best work from the shadows, rather pulling the strings than actually putting herself at risk. And while she would also love for Fathomfolk to be seen as equal to humans, her reasons are far more self serving than others.

These three characters, as well as the others that we meet are all so well developed and, even the ones that aren't likeable still pull you in in some way. You may not agree with their actions, but you can understand their end goal. My favourites of the side characters were Kai, Nami's older brother and Mira's lover, his character took a little to warm up to, but he played such a large part in the story & Mira's mother who is used to not only add a little humour and lightness to the story in parts, but also to throw in some clues and show the true depravity of the treatment of the fathomfolk.

Chan does a brilliant job of getting the perfect blend of political and high octane scenes. With the tensions rising in Tiankawi it's easy to imagine the fights that would break out around the city, and there are plenty of those, but some of the most cutting scenes were the political ones. I think because Mira wanted so badly for things to change, thinking her appointment the first step, but then having to acknowledge that people still see her as something lesser. She is so sure that the way to change will come down the political/lawful route, and is determined to be the first step to that change. Filled with sharp tongues and biting remarks I thoroughly enjoyed getting to delve into the political landscape and I definitely enjoyed Mira's POV more because of this. On the flip side we have the Drawbacks, a gang of Fathomfolk who have had enough of the current laws that keep them in their place, a group Nami finds herself caught up in when she first enters Tiankawi. Though they start off a little more political, they swiftly devolve into a group that believe violence, sowing discord, is the only way to get their point across, and it's their parts of the story where the action really takes off.

If there was one thing that I didn't wholly love, it would be the romance. One romantic arc was brilliant, it was a pre-established relationship which I loved because it's so rare to see, especially in a younger couple. I enjoyed seeing the pair test the bounds of their relationship, realising their insecurities and working through them. On the other side there was an almost insta lust relationship and I just couldn't get behind it. The male character seemed predatory in a way, and I disliked seeing him use the niavitae of the female character, getting her in trouble and into situations she wasn't prepared for.

Overall this was a fantastic read and a real stand out debut. Everything from the world building to the characters were so well created and I found it incredibly easy to dive into the world of the Fathomfolk. Chans writing style drags you into the story head first, and her descriptions ensure you stay glued to the pages, almost like you're in certain scenes with the characters themselves. If you're looking for a good political fantasy to dig your teeth into, I can highly recommend this, and the plot twist at the end has me incredibly eager to get my hands on the next book.

While the cover is really pretty, i’m a bit disappointed with the book. I have to force myself to finish it. I had difficulties to understand the first half of the book. The stories jumping from one pov’s to anothers. The stories itself a bit nonsense imo, like when Nami was interogated, could you believe that as her brother Kai didn’t do anything? And then the story jumps to 2 weeks later. While they live together, it’s rather impossible that Nami could join the rebels without Kai’s noticing. But no, it didn’t say anything which is nonsense.
And also it’s not really clear what are humans and fathomfolks fighting about (rights to belong maybe?) which brings me to complain about Cordelia. I don’t get what she wants. and suddenly there was a god. Also the ending was like.. what happened?
I dislike Nami, some spoiled brat that has privilege and feels that she knows everything. But overall i don’t really care about other characters also.

This book had such promise for me, I was sucked in by an interesting synopsis and a beautiful cover. However, the writing and depth of the plot was lacking and didn’t grip me as much as I hoped for.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit and author Eliza Chan for this eARC.

Let me start off by saying I was so, so excited for this book and had such high expectations! Sadly those weren't quite met.

I'll start with the positives. The world! The world so creative, well thought out, rich and just all around cool. It incorporates legends, mythology and folklore from all over the world and I loved it. It sucks you in from the very first page and you want to know more about it and see more of it.

Unfortunately that is the end of what I loved in this book. It took me forever to get into the story and none of the characters really gripped me. Cordelia is an arrogant snob and Nami is just even more useless, naive and stupid than shortsighted, which is saying something! Mira at least is trying, but even she is just so clueless. The plot was familiar and too drawn out, with lots of unnecessary scenes/details and the chapters often ended abruptly and felt kinda choppy. I feel like it would've really benefited from another round of editing.

Nevertheless I did read it in two days, and because of the amazing world it gets 3.5 stars.

Review will be up on Goodreads & my insta around Feb 15th.

Fathomfolk has a lot of promise, but I think it could have been much, much better than it ended up being. The prose is simplistic and the phrasing is often a little awkward, particularly when it comes to dialogue, and I’m far from the first early reader to point out that most of the characters are extremely one-dimensional. I had a lot of sympathy for Mira, the half-siren recently promoted to captain of the border guard, but I also found her lack of political skills frustrating; surely she had to know that if she wanted to change things, she was going to have to play ball with the city’s elite? And it’s one thing to be no good at politicking; it’s another to be unable to control your temper and be polite when you’re dealing with people much more powerful than you. I liked her as a person, but as a character, not so much.

The others aren’t better. Nami, the water dragon, is incredibly immature – how old is she supposed to be? Because she reads as 15 or 16, all hormones and acting on impulse and never thinking things through, to the point of stupidity. Cordelia, our sea witch, was almost interesting, but I disliked how we were told her goals and motives as she manipulated people, rather than getting to watch her play puppet-master and gradually see her plans come to fruition.

At first glance, I thought the worldbuilding was wonderful, but the more we saw of it, the less sense it made to me, and I think the way Chan went about giving us the information was clumsily done. My biggest issue is, why does underwater life mimic land life so much? The Folk use their magic, called waterweaving, to protect their food in little air-pockets so it’s not ruined by the water; they use it to hold things to counters so they don’t float away; they use it to allow themselves to walk along the sea-floor. But…why would underwater life look like that? Shouldn’t it be completely different to how humans live on land? It feels incredibly lazy, like the author went looking for a way to justify/allow her underwater people to live like humans, rather than sitting down and actually thinking about how non-humans who’ve never seen dry land would live. Seriously: why are they walking on the ground? They can all swim!

Other worldbuilding questions: why are the city guard called the kumiho? Kumiho are like kitsune – fox spirits – but from Korea; do they exist in Chan’s world, or are they just stories? Why does a city that reviles the Folk have a place named Glashtyn Square (glashtyn being a kind of horse water-beastie from Manx folklore)? If dragon pearls are functionally dragon eggs, why on earth would the dragons allow humans to keep a stolen one and turn it into a symbol of land and water people getting along?! That’s a baby! How is that not obscene? But Nami’s whole storyline kicks off when she tries to steal it back and gets in an enormous amount of trouble for it – not in trouble with the humans, but the Folk, including her mother, whose pearl/egg/child it is! Wtf?

Also, I get that ‘drawback’ is a term related to tsunamis…but if you call your extremist group the Drawbacks, I promise you, that’s not what most readers are going to hear. It only makes your rebels sound like complete and utter idiots.

I loved how many different water beings from different mythologies I saw – mostly Asian, but not all – but I have no idea how to picture any of them in Chan’s world; they’re not described visually, and there’s no explanation of what a selkie, kappa, or kelpie is. If you don’t know, Chan’s not going to tell you; and even if you know the mythology – which in most cases I did – there’s no guarantee that what I’m picturing is what Chan wants me to picture. That was baffling and annoying in equal measure.

There’s a fair amount of telling-not-showing – which was so disappointing with such a gorgeous and diverse setting, where I wanted to see everything! – but the dealbreaker for me was how often important moments kept happening off-page, for us to be told about them later. For example, early in the book, Mira has a pretty major fight with her boyfriend – but we have no idea until she recaps it for us in her thoughts in a later chapter. That was a scene that should have been on the page, and I have no idea why it wasn’t.

To me, Fathomfolk feels unfinished, an early draft with the potential to be something incredible, but that just isn’t there yet. The characters need more fleshing out; the underwater worldbuilding needs to be completely rethought from the seafloor up; and the prose needs at least one more round of polishing to make it flow – pun fully intended – better.

This was a great book and I look forward to the sequel! I think the blending of folklore with serious societal issues such as xenophobia, classism, and protest worked really well. It allowed those subjects to be delved into but without it feeling too confrontational or overwhelming, as it may have done with a real-world setting.

The main focus of the book is the exploration of different forms that resistance can take. Do you work to change the system from within, playing the long game? Or do you take a more extreme approach, which may bring change more quickly, but at a cost? Mira and Nami both want better lives for Fathomfolk, but take these differing routes to work towards ending their oppression.

I felt that the inclusion of the prejudice within the Fathomfolk community added an extra depth to the story, as well as making it feel more realistic. Sirens like Mira, and Sea Witches like Cordelia are low in the hierarchy, as their powers make other folk suspicious of them. Seeing Mira navigate this extra challenge in her relationship with a Dragon (the highest in the social hierarchy) is interesting, although by the starting point of the book, Mira has already navigated through most of that, as the relationship is well-established.

I loved Cordelia as a character, although I was never quite sure what her end-game was - hopefully we'll see more in the next book! Mira was also a great character and I liked her relationship with Nami, the younger sister of her partner. I think sometimes Nami came across as a bit too naive and seemed younger than she was perhaps intended to be, but I think there is something more to her relationship with Firth that meets the eye so I want to see where that goes!

Overall, a book with great world-building that touches on many important issues. The writing style is easily accessible, but I'd have preferred it to be slightly more lyrical - sometimes it reads like a YA book. For a book about fantasy creatures, it's surprisingly serious!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I really wanted to love this one, but unfortunately I t I did not. I did not find the plot or characters to be very engaging, and as someone who reads fantasy as an escape from the real world, I found the xenophobia (the main theme of this book) exhibited in the society a little too close to home, and when I finished I was just left feeling rather sad. Nonetheless it is an important issue so I still recommend reading this, especially if you do like fantasy which explores these heavy societal issues.

Unfortunately, Fathomfolk is an amazing idea of a book, let down by the fact that it desperately needed another round of edits. I loved the concept of a sea-dwelling population that combines a whole range of different folklores and mythologies, from water dragons through to seducing sirens and twisty sea witches. There’s also some interesting parallels to modern politics in the plot line of the Fathomfolk seeking a better life in the cities, but being exploited for political gain.

However, this book just feels unpolished, for lack of a better description. Chapters end abruptly, the metaphors don’t always make perfect sense, and a number of major plot points are skipped through in mere sentences. This made it very hard to connect with the characters, and sometimes their motivations and actions seemed inconsistent. I found myself struggling to engage with the story at many points, and desperately wishing things were made just a little clearer.