Initially I was drawn to the cover of this book which is just gorgeous, then the blurb had me even more intrigued.

This is my first book by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I haven't read many stories with sea/water creature and found the setting - semi-drowned world, with underwater and aerial dwellings and creatures of all shapes and sizes, really fresh and exciting.
We get water shifters of sorts (they do retain some of their feature in their human form), we get humans, we get sirens and witches and mythical titans.
It's a complex world, exploring current social issues in a fantasy setting. We get the fathomfolk who are the underdogs, fleeing their dying settlements and trying to find their place in the human world. The world of humans exploits the folk, but also fears their supernatural powers. There story gives us a poignant look on migration and class struggles, all this at the background of climate catastrophe. It's not all dark and depressing though. There is room for joy, for celebration, for love, but most of all for hope for something better for everyone.
I find it hard to formulate precisely what this story is about. It's about acceptance, giving everyone a fair chance, the freedom to be who you are. It is also very much a story finding a way to change the system through revolution as the Drawbacks want, or it seems so on the surface or changing it from within, which is Mira and Kai approach.
The story started somewhat slow for me, too many descriptions, one too many characters and places introduced right from the start, not enough action. Once I got settled into the world though, I began to enjoy it a lot. The action picked up considerably in the second half and didn't let go till the end.
There is a strong romantic element, actually two romance plots, but it's not a fantasy romance. We get a relationship-in-trouble romantic trope with Kai and Mira struggling to keep their relationship under the immense pressure from outside they face (their careers, their different social standing). We also get a slow-burn romance between Nami and Firth which is not at all what it seems to be (there is a secret there that was not revealed here and I have some suspicions and I can't wait for the next book to see if I am right).
There is a whole set of friends and families and villains that bring so much life to the story.
It's a rich, imaginative, gripping story and I highly recommend it.

CW: violence, serious injuries, death, drug use, violent protests, sabotage

I really wanted to love this one, and I honestly really enjoyed the world building. Unfortunately though, the plot was very slow and some of the characters didn't resonate with me. A real shame since the ending wasn't bad, and redeemed the book slightly. I just wish it hadn't been so hard to get that far!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

First of all I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I always try to never judge a book by it’s cover but how can I not when the cover is this incredibly gorgeous? I mean look at it??

So imagine my utter despair when I ended up not vibing with this book at all :(( I can’t exactly lay my finger on the exact reason but I think a big part of it was me not connecting with 2 out of 3 characters that we were given a POV from. The only one I really liked/connected with was Mina and I feel like we got way less chapters/pages from her pov?? Sadly I couldn’t care less about the other two and both of their actions throughout the entire book made me want to grab them by their shoulders and just roughly shake them cause??? Nami was definitely the one I was frustrated with the most, with the way she kept on going back and forth between these ‘’sides’’ AND THE WAY NO ONE EVEN QUESTIONED HER OR TOLD HER EVEN SLIGHTLY OFF??

The pacing definitely felt a lil off aswell to me. It felt like barely anything exciting happened in first part of the novel and towards the end shit just started going down. Could just be me though but I could barely get through the first 50% cause of this, i’m definitely a plot driven gal to my core.

Nevertheless i’m curious to see where the author will go with this duology(?) cause that ending was straight up ?!?!

4.5 stars

Thanks to net galley for this arc in exchange for a honest review.

Wow where to start? The world building was incredible, The city came to life as I was reading, you could almost smell the salt water and hear the aunties haggling over goods in the floating markets. It was amazingly descriptive. Chan skilfully teases out emotions throughout the text, I’m only giving four and a half stars instead of five because the ending devastated me and I’m holding a grudge about it.

I found Mira’s struggles incredibly relatable. Navigating the world when you don’t truly belong to either side of your heritage isn’t always something that’s explored well in books but it was here. Especially in how she was seen as the spokesperson for all fathomfolk regardless of their species. As a mixed race person, it hit very close to home.

Forgive me but goodness I found myself wanting to slap Nami. Her inability to see the nuances of the situation most of the folk found themselves was obviously the point but I would have assumed she would have become a little more savvy than she did towards the end.

Cordelia was fascinating and her pov was always interesting to read. I can’t wait to see more of her schemes in the future.

I hope there’s a sequel soon. I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s coming next.

First off, this cover is STUNNING. Secondly, this story is STUNNING. Big fat yes from me. It was intricate, well paced and felt very mature but also easy to read? 4.5 stars.

Fathomfolk is a story about revolution and social injustice, told in a fantasy world co-inhabited by aquatic mythical creatures and humans. One main character is a half-siren who leads the border guard in human city of Tiankawi, another is a water dragon princess itching to rebel against the oppressive humans, and a wife of a human minister with hidden agendas several layers deep.

Fathomfolk is a fantastic debut. I was really impressed with the gravitas of the story, the way it portrayed inequality got me squirming from discomfort at times. This book gave the main conflict appropriate complexity, told from multiple PoVs of very different people with very different interests. I would recommend this book if you're looking for a politically charged fantasy novel with some action in it.

The worldbuilding is spatially nice (great visual description). However, for a story focusing on conflicts caused by diminishing resources and past natural disasters, the historical and ecological worldbuilding could be explored in more detail. This book did not explain much mechanics of anything. A lot of the character interactions happened by description instead of them actually having dialogues, and they are so focused on the plot/conflict instead of actually interacting with each other, making the characters felt not alive enough for me.

But overall it's an enjoyable read, I'm giving it 3.5 stars, and I will keep an eye out for the sequel.

eARC provided by NetGalley and Orbit Books UK.

This book was fantastic. The writing was beautiful and the book itself was very atmospheric and engaging.
To me this felt very unique and I hope there will be more!

A city that's supposed to be a safe haven, and a wonderful shining beacon, but actually is subject to humans looking down on the "Fathomfolk" who have to live in polluted water below. Do you peacefully fight for equality or John the extremist rebels?
This book deals with xenophobia and racism in a fantasy adjacent way, and how society works, or doesn't work in these scenarios.
While I love the fantasy, magical, almost cosy vibes. And how they contrast with the importance of the unjust scenarios around, I do feel it was tad predictable.
It is very YA, and I'm not sure the romance 100% needed to be there, I don't think it added much and felt quite quick.
But I think it's a clever spin on an all too real event, and excellent to get those of YA audience thinking about these things.

Huge thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. What can I say? Fabulous. Fathomfolk was so much fun, it’s adventurous, atmospheric, high stakes. It’s a perfect utopia of mythology and societal issues. I hope there’s a sequel, because I’d love one.

I enjoyed this but wanted more from it. The writing was beautiful and the characters deep. The story itself felt very same-y and I wished it branched out more with the ideas. The cover itself is fantastic though

First off, the cover is gorgeous! The perfect cover buy but unfortunately the contents just didn't work for me.
The world building is lush but was a lot more metropolitan than I was expecting, I preferred the snippets of the underwater dwellings more.
It felt more YA which might be due to one of the super irritating mc's. I get that she's young but I was soon exasperated by her terrible decisions and forgetfulness of her friends dire predicaments. Her love interest also gave me the ick with his strong grooming vibes. The rest of the characters were OK, I actually quite liked the portrayed villainess. I found the beginning a bit confusing, the middle a slog, and end quite good, the set up for the next book sounds a lot more interesting but I'm just not invested enough in the characters.
I can see why this would be popular but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

Fathomfolk and humankind live side by side in Tiankawi, a central hub where their people gather together. Half-siren Mira is the first of the fathomfolk to gain an officer rank in the military. Her partner, Kai, is the ambassador. Kai’s younger sister Nami is exiled to their city, and is the catalyst for change.

Nami is flawed – young, brash, innocent – but also very believable. The novel shows how easy it is to manipulate someone who has the right heart, but doesn’t know how to navigate their complex world. Fathomfolk does an excellent job of showing the tensions with the loss of land – or undersea here – forcing immigration, the underlying racism, classism and cultural issues.

This is a clever, unique novel full of strong worldbuilding, interesting characters, and a nuanced story.

Something for fans of Japanese Mythology. This book is a clever story about immigration and being thrown into a new world in hopes to find peace, just to have new struggles coming your way.
It's well written, still sometimes it seems a bit chaotic in structure, but I think it is still worth it to read that book. As many books this year it wraps important topics in a fantasy world, to make the reader believe this is only fiction, but on second glance it is actually already happening in the world.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Fathomfolk' by Eliza Chan.

I was SO excited for 'Fathomfolk' by Eliza Chan just because the concept felt right up my alley. I'm gutted because Chan's writing style is glorious but this story just wasn't for me, I felt like it dragged for me in all the wrong places. I probably will read the next novel but I just wished I loved this book more.

Oh boy, I was NOT prepared for Fathomfolk. I expected a relatively typical East Asian inspired fantasy with a fun ocean bent--what I got was the most harrowingly, skin-crawlingly accurate portrayal of the current tensions surrounding immigration, race, class and power and how all those intersect. As an Australian, this book hit especially hard; asylum seekers and in particular 'boat people' have been hot-button topics here in recent decades (just as much as in Eliza Chan's native UK). I felt she absolutely nailed so much of the trauma and horror around this very ugly part of the 'race relations cluster' that we don't see depicted quite as often in US books, just given the different ways immigration and racism tend to manifest in these different cultures.

Across the board, Eliza Chan handled her thematic material so perfectly, and so brutally. The allegory she chose was very elegant, and allowed her to illustrate many of her points particularly deftly, in a way which I suspect drives home the message to white readers in a way that might not land as powerfully if using more typical fantasy analogues for real-world race. I also really loved the complexity and nuance Eliza Chan afforded all her characters and factions: everyone had their own priorities and agendas in a way that rang very true to life, everything was illustrated in varying shades of grey, and if there was one message that rang clear as a bell, it's that there are no easy answers to racism and intolerance.

I've seen a lot of reviewers criticising the character of Nami, but I felt her arc was maybe the most powerful, and the one that drove home many of the thematic content the strongest. She's so believably flawed, so believably *young*, and through her Eliza Chan showed just how it is that well-meaning but headstrong and naive young people can be so easily manipulated and radicalised. I found her character arc so heartbreaking but so REAL--and all the more painful for that--because paths like hers are precisely the ones that in the real world lead to teenagers ending up in suicide attacks and on terrorism watch lists.

The other two POV characters were brilliant, too; I particularly enjoyed how Eliza Chan used three very different fathomfolk all with different backgrounds and perspectives (a special shoutout to Cordelia, my devious sea-witch queen) to examine her themes from all sides, as well as to illustrate just how much *minority groups are not monoliths* and there are just as many tensions and layers of prejudice and intolerance within as without. The web of relationships was fascinating and well-crafted, and oh my god, the number of gut punches Eliza Chan delivered. She wasn't afraid to use her characters in brutal ways to drive her thematic material home, and I am incredibly here for it.

Of course, it almost goes without saying that the worldbuilding was rich and textured, but I'm going to say it anyway because it really was so unique and so sparkling. I loved it. My one quibble with the book (for which I probably should lower my rating, but can't bring myself to) is that a lot of it felt underedited, on a line level. The first 20% was very polished, but through much of the rest of the book there was a distracting over-reliance on sentence fragments and some poor epithet use that dulled the sparkle on the otherwise technically very competent writing.

Overall, this is a brilliant debut from an obviously incredibly intelligent and insightful author whose career I'm super excited to follow. I eagerly anticipate the sequel, and in the meantime will be recommending Fathomfolk far and wide.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown UK for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Welcome to Tiankawi, where revolution is brewing in the semi submerged city, between humans and the fathomfolk. A world where sirens, sea witches, kelpies and kappas, live within the waters. A debut fantasy novel inspired by East Asian mythology and ocean based folk tales comes a shining pearl of a story.

A safe haven of human civilisation and for those creatures who are fleeing civil unrest. At least, that’s how it first appears. But in the submerged city, humans are quite literally, on top of the hierarchy. Peering down from shining towers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk who live in the polluted waters below.

For half-siren, Mira, a promotion to captain of the border guard, means an opportunity to help her downtrodden people. But if earning trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn’t difficult enough, everything she has worked hard for is put in jeopardy. A water dragon, fathomfolk royalty, Nami, is exiled to the city. When extremists sabotage the annual boat race, violence erupts, as does the suppression of fathomfolk rights. Both Name and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth paying the price or if they should, leave this city to drown.

From an epic fantasy world comes a modern, myth infused story of revolution and magic set against a glittering yet decaying city. Enter a world of magic, sea folk and intrigue where nothing is really as it appears. A world rife with suppression, revolution and the need to fight for what is right. But what if the cost is far too price to pay. Do they save what they’ve worked so hard for or do they let everything drown? I guess you’ll have to read to find out.

"Fathomfolk" is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a while and I'm already looking forward to reading the next part in the series.

The world building was interesting, I really liked the characters, and the ending left me wanting more.

DNF due to the chaotic world building! I honestly struggled to get through the first few chapters... started to skim a little bit and unfortunately, it wasn't worth it.

Unless I completely missed it, I felt like this story gave no attempt of trying to make us feel any emotion to these characters? They all came across straight away as bland and surface level? Okay I understand that some depth could show up later but, it's too late? I have nothing to feel like I want to root for these characters or to see where they end up.

This was one of the least engaging books I've read in a while and I'm actually sad to say that - with this being advertised for fans of Jade City and The Bone Shard Daughter (which is a big claim by the way - and both books I loved) this was a big disappointment for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for this ARC in return of my review!

These are my very honest thoughts and I hope this book finds the right audience who will love it!

Thanks to Little Brown Book group and Netgalley for providing me with the ARC to this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a brilliantly clever book that took some very real issues of the real world and applied them to a world build that was fascinating and executed very well. EC has taken the racism and xenophobia that is disgustingly apparent in our world and used them as tools to weave a narrative between three women who all want the same thing but will chase it in different ways, each with the idealism and cynicism of experience weaved through their characters. There is some very real subtext on migration and integration of different cultures throughout this book. 7

Nami is young and idealistic, her naivety to the real world leaves her open to manipulation while using any means necessary to achieve her aims. Leaving the question when have you gone too far? When you use violence to achieve your goals at the price of the people you are trying to save, are you still the freedom fighter you claim to be? How will you react when you have to face your own ingrained bias and racism?

Mira has the cynicism of one who has experienced growing up in Tiankawi and the costs it has taken from her mother to get her to the point she is the only fathomfolk Captain in the city guard. She is very aware of the tokenism of her position but as a half human, half fathomfolk she tries to use conformity to prove to the humans that fathomfolk are not dangerous. I actually really loved that we came into this book with her and Kai (but to avoid spoilers we are stopping here)

Selena is using politics, she wants to protect her position and children through political machinations and deals with all races while hiding who she actually is from all around her. When her secrets are found out though she will do anything to save herself and her children. Selena embodies the fight for herself over everyone else.

The ending of this book is both heartwarming and breaking. I NEED BOOK 2.

Tiankawi is a half-submerged city where humans live alongside the fathomfolk - sirens, kelpies, sea witches. The seas are polluted and troubled and although sea creatures found refuge in Tiankawi, they are treated as second-rate citizens.
Mira is a half-siren and a member of the border guard who is working together with her water dragon/ambassador boyfriend Kai to change the system from within.
Nami is Kai's privileged, stubborn younger sister, exiled to Tiankawi because of the trouble she caused at home, in the futile hope that her brother will restrain her.
And Cordelia is a sea witch married to a city councillor, playing a very dangerous political game.
Chan builds a very detailed fantasy world brimming with tension and high stakes. However, I struggled to finish this book precisely because there was too much detail, as if the author was trying to cram every vivid detail into the book, dragging the plot to a halt. The world building felt so over-indulgent at times that it was a chore to read through.
Theoretically, the political conflict in Tiankawi is complex and nuanced, with racism/speciesism, colonization, oppression and exploitation of the poor, but the character arcs don't reflect that. In fact, the characters feel more like cliched YA sketches than real people. Mira is a reluctant, law-abiding, irritatingly insecure heroine who refuses any help or clever advice until it's too late. Nami is a criminally stupid teenage rebel who makes the wrong choice every single time. And Cordelia - although she had a huge potential for nuance - ended up as a cartoonish villain, a less entertaining version of Ursula from The Little Mermaid. The only character I felt any empathy for was Kai, but he got far too little attention in the novel.
After the very long first half where almost nothing happens and we are introduced to all the nuances of the world, things start moving very quickly. However, the parts of the story that are meant to click together (Nami - Mira conflict, Kai's solution) feel forced, and the final mythical twist feels pulled out of thin air, a cliffhanger for book 2.
Overall, the concept, the world, the idea of the political conflict all seemed fine, but the characters and the pacing made reading this story a chore for me.