Thank you to Little Brown Book group and netgalley for the ARC.

Fathomfolk is set in a city where humans and fathom folk (selkies, sea witches, sirens, water dragons and so much more) live. It isn't peace and harmony, there's division between humans and the fathomfolk. We have three narrators who explain it from their perspective, navigating the politics of the place.

the world is rich and wonderful. it isn't perfect and there's aspects i didn't like but that's on me, the writing was brilliant and captivating.

I felt the premise of this book was promising, like others I was attracted to the cover, and the name sold me.

The story didn’t live up to my expectations sadly. The East Asian mythology was a welcome basis for the book, but it was incredibly slow, and the depth of the world building wasn’t seen in the characters themselves who felt flat and one dimensional. I wasn’t particularly invested in any of them, and the romance aspect didn’t improve that. The alternate POVs worked well, but the characters felt ultimately forgettable.

This was an okay read for me, the cover initially made me curious since it's so pretty and I thought the story had potential. The writing was really nice and so was the worldbuilding, it was super unique and interesting and I wish we had seen even more of the world.

What didn't work for me was the really slow pace, nothing happened for around 50% of this and I didn't connect with the characters enough to balance that out for me. Nami was honestly kind of annoying me and the others just weren't that interesting or memorable. The plot picked up in the second half but it still wasn't very gripping and if I hadn't liked the writing style as much as I did I would have really struggled to keep reading. The ending was fine although predictable and it didn't especially made me want to pick up the next one. I did like the villain though.

Overall I think if you're really into interesting worldbuilding and don't mind a slower plot this will be very enjoyable for you, it just wasn't really for me.

"Fathomfolk" by Eliza Chan is a gripping first fantasy that transports readers to Tiankawi, a semi-submerged metropolis on the verge of revolt. Chan uses East Asian mythology and aquatic folk stories to examine the conflict between humans and the city's fathomfolk—sirens, sea witches, kelpies, and kappas.

Mira, a half-siren who becomes border guard captain, offers a fresh and interesting take on the conflicts. From the start, the dramatic contrast between the rich humans in their towering constructions and the marginalised fathomfolk below sets the setting for a narrative about social hierarchies and equality.

Mira struggles to gain the confidence of her human coworkers while dealing with Nami's banishment. Extremists interrupt the annual boat race, a symbol of solidarity, causing violence and a crackdown on fathomfolk rights. This raises the question of whether Tiankawi should be allowed to drown in its inequities or if reform is worth the turmoil.

Chan's world-building of the submerged metropolis and its various residents is remarkable. East Asian mythology enriches the plot, producing a unique fantasy and cultural combination. The author masterfully handles prejudice, power, and the cost of development, making readers consider their own world.

Mira and Nami, particularly, are well-developed and sympathetic, with internal and external struggles that shape their identities. The suspenseful narrative has surprising turns that keep readers hooked until the finish.

In "Fathomfolk," Eliza Chan has written a thought-provoking novel that takes readers to a mythical world and makes them consider real-world challenges. The first fantasy novel's engaging characters, rich world-building, and relevant topics make it promise.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

I was attracted to this book like most others due to the cover, it is stunning.
The story itself im not sold on 100%. I love my fantasy to be plot driven; twist and turns, politics, friction, conniving... but the first half of this book is incredibly boring. It was a fight to push through and keep on going. Things do pick up but by then i dont care for many of the characters at all.

It also has my most hated trope.. instant love. A small part of me is interested to see where this goes, but im not rushing for the next book.

Chan delivers a rich character-driven fantasy steeped in East Asian mythology with her debut fantasy Fathomfolk.
Those who love nautical themed fantasy full of sirens, sea witches, kelpies and kappas will find plenty to dive into with this one.
For others, a somewhat plodding pace that makes the early part of the novel a slog and you may be best to look elsewhere.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced digital copy. I loved the cover! Nut I couldn't get into it. After a few chapters it started to feel more like a chore to read.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This was just amazing. I loved this so much! loved the writing,the characters and the storytelling.Mira was a great FMC and she was everything I like to see in my MCs. Can't wait to read more work by this author. I also enjoyed different POVs and would love to see more of certain side characters.The only thing that I had problem with (again,it's a matter of preference) is that I wish there was a glossary with some names/terms I am not familiar with as it takes away from reading having to go back and forth looking for descriptions and meanings. All in all great read and I definitely recommend. Can't wait to see my special edition of this one.

I was drawn to this book by the cover - it’s gorgeous!

For a fantasy I liked this. Enough romance, enough action and a really interesting world that I haven’t come across yet!

Could be slow at times and I did need to persevere in the beginning but it was worth it!

I should start by saying I had some expectations for this one, and maybe that was to a large extent why I ended up fairly disappointed. Still, I feel that even in a generous, expectations-free mood I would have found it hard to enjoy this book.

My full list of grievances is probably too long for a review, so I’ll stick to the main points.

The world-building. Initially I was enchanted by this idea, humans and mythical sea creatures from all the fairytales and myths around the world living in one metropolis, with all the tension and politicking it inevitably entails. The realization of it was just… choppy, from painting a comprehensive bigger picture to some specific details. Like, why does a character remain mid-transition when their water weaving runs out if the ‘sea’ form is the true form - shouldn’t they just snap out of their human body shape into the true one? How does sex/procreation work between different fathomfolk species? For instance, much of the time Nami’s attraction to Firth is described in human terms, to his human body, but we also meet a mixed family who have humanoid shapes rather than being predominantly human-looking: does that mean the human form is the only way for them to get progeny or..? And so on and so forth.

The characters. Unfortunately they lacked depth to them, with very few scenes where I would consider any of them even remotely relatable. The writing style doesn’t help here: everyone’s motivations, thoughts and conclusions are spelled out so straightforwardly, in plain words, that it turns into a very much ‘tell, tell, TELL not show’ kind of situation. Whatever self-discovery or redemption journey they were supposed to be on, everything just falls flat.

The plot. Also a mix of “I see what you were trying to do here”, predictable developments and sheer ??? on things that would be too spoilery to elaborate on here. Suffice it to say it raised eyebrows but not in a good way.

Honestly, I think this book was aiming for a lot of good things - inclusivity, accepting the other and letting go of prejudice, making mistakes and coming back from them, choosing and understanding your sacrifices - but it just didn’t come together for me. The context did not seem complex enough to spin a convincing social issues-related story, and important plot twists lacked impact (both because of how the plot was going and who it was happening to).

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

I loved this book! The setting, the characters, the different types of Fathomfolk and how they all lived and acted together. I got genuinely attached to all of the main characters, and was getting so mad at the drawbacks, especially firth. The characters were just written so well and the world was very interesting, I can’t wait to explore more of it and see where on earth this story will end up. I also hope we see some more of the smaller characters, especially Eun. And I am excited to see more types of Fathomfolk and titans. I will definitely be recommending this to all the readers I know

First off, I have to say that I was partly attracted to this book by the stunning cover, which is quite unlike anything else I've seen in the genre - well done to the publisher for getting this artist involved. The second thing that sold me on starting Fathomfolk was the blurb, which made it sound intriguing enough to make me request a copy.

The basic premise of the book is that the majority of the action takes place in the partially flooded city of Tiankawi. This world is inhabited by both humans and various of the eponymous creatures - including kelpies, kappa and dragons - many of whom have come to Tiankawi to live because of human exploitation of their original homes. Not only do they do all the jobs nobody wants to do, they also face significant amounts of discrimination and much of what's going on is told from the perspective of Mira, a half-siren who has become captain of the border guard, which means she's both responsible for monitoring entry into Tiankawi but also feels like she's being used to demonstrate that it's much more tolerant than it actually is.

She's also involved in a relationship with one of the fathomfolk ambassadors to the city, a dragon, whose younger sister (Nami) then gets sent to Tiankawi. Ostensibly this is to keep Nami out of trouble like that she's left behind but she soon gets involved with fathomfolk radicals in the city. To be honest, I found Nami possibly exactly as annoying as she was meant to be, particularly at those points where her new-found boyfriend among the radicals tells her all sorts of things she should be running from if she had any sense and she just goes 'oh, that's so cool' and gazes dewy-eyed at him. I'm left hoping that the author wasn't writing this with a straight face, so to speak...

There's a lot of world-building going on here, with all sorts of water-related creatures turning up as characters from the fathomfolk side of things, but at times it's all a bit heavy-handed. There is, however, a clever plot twist at the end of the book which made me move this from 3 stars to 4 as it sets up some intriguing ideas to be developed in the next one of the series. Hopefully, that will be done well and also have a similarly-attractive cover!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

— 4 ⭑

are you kidding?
i'm in pain right now.

this was soo good i can’t wait to read the next book!

Interesting worldbuilding and characters. Unfortunately, this one failed to grab me in the early chapters, and ultimately I think it just wasn't for me. I will definitely be giving it another chance in the future.

This book is a really good debut!

The world that Eliza creates is so rich and vivid. I love when I can see what the author is cooking behind my eye lids as if I’m there, and Eliza definitely delivers in that aspect.

There is social injustice and racism as the main focus of this one. We follow a few characters. Mira, Nami, and Selena.

I really enjoyed the magic system to it. There were certain moments in the beginning where it reminded me of Katara from The Last Airbender.

To begin my review, the cover of this book is absolutely stunning, and really piqued my interest when requesting this book.

I will say that I really enjoy Eliza’s writing style. I did find it very easy to read and I found the concept and building of the world to be very interesting, and not similar to anything I’ve read previously. I’m usually picking up fantasy books with more of a medieval vibe, so I was really intrigued by the half underwater city that this book is based within.

I enjoyed the way that this book addressed social issues such as xenophobia within a fantasy setting, I could feel the writer’s passion for this message.

Unfortunately, I did find the characters to be some-what forgettable. Although I think Cordelia will play a good role in the next book!

3/5 stars for this one, thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me for an honest review.

♡

I really wanted to rate this one higher but I just couldn't get into the story properly. I like the world EC has created and definitely think it has potential, so hopefully the sequel will suit my tastes a bit better

**Thank you, Netgalley UK, for approving my request in exchange for a honest opinion.**

I found myself having to read it unwillingly because I received an ARC copy to review. I am very sorry about this because i had a very high motivation to read it. There is a severe shortage of modern novels with mythological sea creatures and above all there is a shortage of good, solid novels!
When I read the back cover, I had already imagined that it would be the best book with sea creatures, given the multitude of mythological creatures and troublesome current issues such as pollution and discrimination.

The world is indeed rich, well-researched and well-thought, but what annoyed me the whole time is that names of spirits and creatures are thrown into the book without explantation (and at least in the arc copy without a glossary). In order to understand what the author was talking about or how that newly introduced character looked like, I had to constantly google them. A few examples are: kappa, saltlick, Fumiho, chang-bi, chinthe.

I had problems with the characters as well. I could never tell Nami from Mira, who was the half-mermaid and who was the water dragon because they had the same voices. The same goes for Kai who was supposed to be the finacée of one two, but it didn't make any difference. I thought it was an initial difficulty due to the fact that I had to orient myself in the new world and adapt to the new characters, but unfortunately this difficulty remained even at the 60% reached. Furthermore, all three of these characters seemed very immature to me and I didn't get attached to them.
the only voice distinct from the others was Cordelia the sea witch who plots and manipulates characters to her personal advantage from behind the scenes. hard to get attached to her, though :D

unfortunately, the story didn't grab me either. i got the impression that nothing happened in the first half of the book and events start to happen towards the second half. unfortunately, by that point i had already lost interest in the whole thing.

It's not a debut that I feel like recommending, unless you are prepared for what to expect.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this advanced copy.

Fathomfolk was such an original story. However, I couldn't enjoy the whole book. All was okay, but it was easily forgettable. But, I need to appreciate the artist and editor and everyone who made the cover. It was selling!!

The cover of this book is absolutely stunning, and it immediately caught my attention. As I delved into the story, I was captivated by the author's writing style, which was both engaging and immersive. The premise of the book, with its focus on mythology and folklore, particularly piqued my interest as I am a huge fan of these themes. I was delighted to discover that the mythology featured in this book had an Asian influence, adding a unique and intriguing aspect to the story.

While I thoroughly enjoyed many aspects of the book, there were a few elements that didn't quite resonate with me. The pacing at times felt off, and I wished for a more seamless flow throughout the narrative. Additionally, while the mythology was fascinating, I found myself longing for a deeper exploration of the worldbuilding. Despite these minor drawbacks, overall, I found myself engrossed in the story and eager to see how it would unfold.

In conclusion, this book offers a captivating blend of stunning writing style and an intriguing mythological backdrop. While it may have had its flaws, it still managed to capture my imagination and keep me invested in the characters' journey. Fans of mythology and folklore will likely find much to enjoy in this book's unique blend of Asian-inspired mythology.