I tried, okay. It’s just not appealing to me whatsoever…

The first 4 chapters felt like they come from a different book. With different character that’s being focused on, different setting etc. That being said, it’s an overwhelming start. The fantasy aspects was cool on marketing—underwater folks! dragons! Sirens! Etc— but on reality they’re just jumbled up together and its just confusing. Sorry I had to DNF at 20%

I have read 15% of the book, but 7 chapters in, it failed to entice me to continue. There are too many different species, and it is difficult to visualise what they should look like. The writing style is the perfect example of "telling but not showing". Most characters are bland for now, and, again, too many characters to divide my attention. The message is not subtle at all - and while I understand and agree, the idea of reading a whole book of in-your-face "racism is bad, look at the racist guys being racist and bad" without any more interesting points to be made about it, is just tiring.
Sorry, not for me.

Fatomfolk is a captivating novel inspired by East Asian mythology and oceanic folk tales. The story starts slowly but is packed with secrets, plot twists and intrigues. I was bewitched by the detailed world-building in this book. Tiankawi is a fascinating, richly imagined, vast city inhabited by humans and various mythological beings. It is beautiful and diverse but struggling with poverty, inequalities and prejudices. Eliza Chan did a great job at including social problems in her work, like immigration, race and class, while keeping the narrative enjoyable. Despite touching on serious topics, the novel seems light and whimsical, creating a contrast that may discourage some readers. For me, the only negative was the lack of foreshadowing of the rebels’ plans, which could bring the storyline together.

To sum up, I enjoyed exploring Tiankawi's complexity and will read the next book in the series.

Fathomfolk is the first book in a new series by Eliza Chan. It’s focused on various mythical creatures and a heavy emphasis on world politics, which is divided to multiple points of view from a few of the characters. I was excited for this book as it sounded unique and intriguing but unfortunately I didn’t gel with it. I ended up confused by the varied points of view, trying to keep up with new characters and understanding the world building that took place quite quickly. I see that reviews for this novel are varied with some people loving it which makes me really happy. I never enjoy writing a more negative review but seeing others who felt the opposite is reassuring and knowing the enjoyment of books is subjective to the reader.

I struggled with the multiple perspectives; the voices didn't feel distinct enough to me and the story was somewhat confusing to follow at times. Regardless, I appreciated the rich worldbuilding and settings, and will look out for more of the author's works in the future.

3.5⭐️
Thank you to Orbit UK and Netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has lots of world building and admittedly I struggled to get into it, it took me a couple of goes before I was drawn in enough to continue reading until the end (although that may have been more a me thing than related to this book specifically).

The multiple POVs were a bit confusing at times. Although Nami’s immaturity is understandable given her relatively sheltered upbringing, I still found her chapters grating much of the time. Mira was probably my favourite character. One part of the ending made me sad, but there were some good twists along the way and I’ll likely pick up the next book when it comes out.

Overall a good read but just a bit confusing at times and the editing probably could have been a bit tighter.

Very slow to get in to.
It felt much more about politics and race rather than fantasy.
Nothing wrong with that but just not what I was expecting from this Fantasy novel.
I didn’t find that I really got invested with any of the characters, I had no one to root for.
One good but boring, one naïve idiot and one evil.
Very disappointing ending.
World building was good, great descriptions.

This was a highly anticipated release for me, that sadly did not hit the mark. This book had such great potential, with such a fascinating concept, but unfortunately it just fell flat. The worldbuilding was really lacking I felt, but not so much as the characters - we have quite a number of POVs in here, with three main characters, and they all just felt like the exact same personality. There was also just SO much going on in such a short space of time that I never felt fully invested in any storyline or character, because we were jumping from one thing to the next. This was truly one of the few books I've considered DNFing in my life, because I just did not care about the story at all. Such a shame given the stunning cover, and the amazing potential that this had.

In the submerged city of Tiankawi, humans and fathomofolk coexist, yet tensions simmer beneath the surface, palpable through the varied roles and interactions of the characters. The narrative hints at a political undercurrent, weaving in themes of racism and inequality, mirroring the complexities of our world.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this arc!

I really wanted to love this book but I had no desire to pick it up and felt it slightly confusing to follow the 3rd person narration as some characters weren’t explained as well as others.

I couldn’t finish this book all the way through as every time I picked it up I felt as though it was making me not want to read and I had little interest in it.

DNF at 16%

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book

Honestly, I just couldn't get into this. It took me three reads to get to 16% and I had no desire to continue. I'm sure it's probably a great book once you get into it but it just wasn't for me. The premise sounds interesting and the writing was fine, it just lacked a level of enchantment that I'd hope for with and story filled sirens, water dragons and kelpies. Not one for me.

Fathomfolk introduces interesting characters in a very interesting world. The world’s waters are rising, the water is polluted and its habitats dying. Fathomfolk (those who live in the water) need to flee their homes and take refuge wherever they can. Around the world are different human cities in which folk can live as well. One of these cities is Tiankawi which is built in different floors. There’s the ocean, vast and deep but also with shallower regions, then there are the poorer humans and richer folk. The higher the buildings get, the richer and more influential are their inhabitants.

The world building was one of the things I liked most about Fathomfolk. It’s detailed and interesting, giving the reader a glimpse of an apocalyptic yet fascinating world that plays a bit with climate change and rising waters. There are the different Havens all around the oceans which are all endangered. Then there are the human cities that still remain. It’s a very interesting mix of magic, mythology, technology and politics.

The societies are made up of humans and folk from all over the world; selkies, kelpies, sirens, sea witches, water dragons, kappas,… basically any water being you could think of. This constellations makes for many conflicts which I thought were well thought through. I especially enjoyed how the social conflicts were written:
1. Racial conflicts. Most of the fathomfolk in Tiankawi are poor and belong to lower classes. They live in the polluted waters at the very bottom of the city or in floating houses or boats on the surface. While there are lower class humans as well, they still have better living conditions than most of the folk. There is constant tension between humans and folk for that reason.
2. Refugees. Many of the folk have been living in Tiankawi for quite a while but due to havens in the sea dying, more and more refugees try to enter the city – legally or illegally doesn’t matter anymore. But space in Tiankawi has its limits, especially when those who have space don’t want to give any away.

I really liked how those two conflicts were written and underlying the whole story. Each of the protagonists was involved somehow so there were many POVs to the conflicts, highlighting personal but also common interests, wishes, and problems.

My favourite protagonist was Mira, a half human half siren who works in the border guard and is the only fathomfolk captain there. She gets called quota folk. She has carved a place for herself in this harsh city and now she needs to stay there. But she struggles a lot with it and with the pressure from both the folk and the humans. She tries very hard to do the right things but she gets constantly stopped. I could understand her very well, both her anger and her resignation, as well as her love for her city and how she keeps going despite all the obstacles in her way. I also enjoyed that she is also in an established relationship already, one where she can find safety and support. Her boyfriend is the ambassador for one of the Havens, a water dragon named Kai and let me tell you. I loved him. He was by far my favourite character in the book. He’s an absolute sweetheart, thoughtful and yet determined to help in any way he can. He still needs to learn a lot and I liked how he was easily able to learn and adapt.

Kai’s sister, Nami, is new to Tiankawi. She arrives there after undergoing some hardships which don’t present the city and its inhabitants in a good light. It was easy to follow her thoughts. She’s still very young and hasn’t seen much of the world and is thus naive, but also full of will and energy and determination. Through her, we get to see how people get convinced to join an extremist group, how their dynamics work and what they use to gain more followers. I struggled a bit with Nami’s chapters and wanted to shake some sense into her from time to time but I could also understand well why she did what she did.

The fourth POV is from Cornelia, the sea witch’s. I didn’t really like her as a character but I loved how she was written! She’s a very interesting character, always scheming and moving for opportunities for a better standing in society as well as some kind of safety.

I really enjoyed all characters and how each gives soemthing new to the story that made understanding easier but that also made me nod in agreement. I liked how each character was interwoven with both external and internal conflicts.

I absolutely loved this book right up until the ending. I don’t want to spoil it but I really hope the next installment is going to broach the social issues from Fathomfolk. The ending seemed to solve most of the struggles the previous story built up way too easily. It didn’t fit what I read previously and was highly anticlimatic. I truly adored Fathomfolk, but after the ending it still left unsatisfied and left a sour taste in my mouth. After what the story up to that point built up was basically made null and void with the ending. I really do hope this gets resolved!

But all in all, I liked Fathomfolk a lot!

Found this hard to get into - only got invested maybe 40% in? There were a lot of povs, that were useful, buuut couldve been eased in. Idk. It was good, just had to push through!

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and Orbit UK for providing me with an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Fathomfolk is Eliza Chan’s debut fantasy novel in which we follow Nami and Mira as they try to fight for fathomfolk rights and decide if the change is worth it or if they should let Tiankawi, their semi-flooded city, drown.

When reading reviews on GoodReads, I was under the impression that this book was either a hit or a miss, and it was definitely a hit for me. The worldbuilding was really complex and kind of hard to remember as there are a lot of intricacies, and I wish there was a glossary of some sort to help with that, but it was also really cool and unique. You can clearly tell that Fathomfolk is inspired by East-Asian mythology and folklore and that was the main reason why I wanted to read this book, so I was not disappointed by that.
I had some trouble diving into the story as it was not what I expected at all, especially character-wise, but the plot is really interesting and tackles some themes that are both important in our world and in the book’s world, like discrimination and environmental rights. Some plot twists felt predictable and some not, but overall, I really enjoyed reading this story. As for the characters… I felt kind of misled by the synopsis because I thought that Mira was going to be the main character, but it turns out that Nami is the main character, and Cordelia was not at all taken into account in that synopsis (there is now a new synopsis). Nevertheless, I liked the characters and Nami is definitely my favourite.
I will definitely read book 2 of this series!

I recommend this book to you if you enjoy East-Asian adult fantasy, political games, betrayals and seafolks!

I will admit I struggled to get into this book, I'm normally okay with various POV stories, but with Fathomfolk I found it a major struggle to get into the various switches between character's voices. I liked the overall setting of the book as it was an intriguing premise but I do feel like the rapid switching in chapters between POVs made the book feel more choppy than it should have and it did mean at times it was a struggle especially as the pace picked up to the end of the novel. I do feel like the target audience should have been more young adult than any other demographic as it reminded me a lot of the kind of books I enjoyed reading as a teen in terms of romance plot...

Thank you Netgalley and Little Brown for the e-ARC.

I wish I could have loved this book as much as I wanted to. Unfortunately, I have to say that listening to the audiobook was the only way for me to get through all of it, because the story never really gripped me.

The descriptions were beautiful and the writing was not really at fault, because it was overall brilliant plotting, but this was much too political for my taste.

I only really cared for Mira and did not really connect with other characters, and even found Nami really annoying most of the time. The voices that the narrator did also made a few characters sound really stupid, so that might have played a part in my opinion.

I got rather invested around the 78% mark, and was excited for the ending, which was really great, although I was very disappointed in a specific death. It’s just such a shame that it took getting tothe epilogue for this book to have me hooked, because I loved it, but I’m not sure I could read a second book if it was as political as this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really liked the world-building of this novel and the concept of both underwater and land-dwelling communities living together (even if not quite in harmony!). The fathomfolk are an interesting creation and something different for fantasy writing. However, I felt the narrative dragged at times, particularly during the Nami storyline. The ending was intriguing though. 3.5 stars really.

I really liked the sound of this but I did feel quite thrown into the world with little context and too many characters introduced all at once.

Fathomfolk has a really pretty cover and an interesting premise. Unfortunately it could not convince me.

In recent years I have read other books with the theme of surpression of a species or other kinds of people and I have to say that I found that those books worked better at making me feel it. Partially this had to do with the characters but also partially with the writing. M.L. Wangs Blood Over Bright Haven sprung to mind often as I read this book wherein I didn't care for most characters, but her writing and set-up delivered exactly what she set out to do. Fathomfolk does not.

Returning back to the characters, they are slightly on the flat side. I liked Mila but she doesn't really move forward. She is very passive in her situation and it didn't make for a very compelling read. Nami on the other hand was immature. It was so very obvious that she was being used. There was absolutely no sublety about it and it was frustrating to see that she didn't want to see it.

The world in itself is interesting. Water species that can have a human body when on the land and that makes the human and the other species clash. But there is very little description of the various water species. I have an idea of what most of them are, but the whole point of books is that you show and describe them to me. I also wondered a lot about the relationships between the various species. There are some hints here and there but mostly it was the humans versus the fathomfolk. I think that was a missed opportunity. The brief glimpses of the under water life that we got, most of them seemed to be in their human bodies or living life like how they would on land. It felt a little weird and like this aspect wasn't giving a whole lot of thought.

Zootopia but make it water-themed, is how I would pitch the book. We follow a cop character trying to improve the lives of their marginalised society in a sprawling metropolitan city - don't that sound familiar.

I was very surprised to learn this book is adult - the whole time reading I assumed it was a YA and I think it would've worked better and set more accurate expectations if that was the book's categorisation. The whole thing felt a bit more juvenile in its approach to talking about racism, stigmatisation, prejudice etc. Not a bad thing as young people need to examine these concepts but for an adult book, I would expect a more nuanced, deeper examination.

I think having a human character could've benefited the book, as we see Nami's perspective change throughout the book and at some point she says not all humans are bad. I'm not sure why she thinks so as all the humans she and us meet are indeed scum. I think adding a human POV would've added depth and another dimension to the conversation. I think that's what they were trying to do with Mira but she faces a lot of prejudice and no one treats her as if she's human, so it didn't quite deliver.

Overall, a lot was going on and I'm not sure that all the plot points delivered their point. I did like a lot of it - talking about prejudice, toxic relationships, interracial relationships, revolutions and change through violence. I just feel like the execution of them was a bit surface-level which is why it felt more YA.

The world is for sure interesting and as someone who enjoys books about mermaids/sirens it was cool to see so many different water creatures and learn more about them. I needed a little bit more about the magic system and the world though to truly understand it.

I think the climax of the book was the best part, it was quite tense and action-packed. I am not sure if the 'solution' to racism really examines the problem deeply, as to me it's a little bit of a cop-out.

I won't likely pick up the sequel but I'm not mad I read this. Just a bit meh about it is all.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!