This was probably the most interesting book I've read. As for the plot, unfortunately it was hard to distinguish the characters based on the letter writing style and I had to keep going back to the character names. Perhaps this would work for readers who enjoy this type of genre.

Sadly, it was just not for me.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep is a novel of contrasts: it excels in creating a captivating world and offers a unique storytelling approach but struggles with pacing and emotional depth. Fans of slow-burn romances and intricate world-building may find much to enjoy, while those seeking a faster-paced plot or more direct engagement with the characters may find it lacking. The book's imaginative setting and tender moments hold promise for its continuation, making it worth a read despite its imperfections.

The epistolary format initially seems like a fresh and engaging choice, offering an intimate look at the characters' thoughts and feelings. E. and Henerey’s correspondence reveals their growing affection for each other in a tender and slowly unfolding romance. The letters, though, sometimes feel overly formal and stilted, which can distance readers from the characters and their interactions. This formality occasionally hinders emotional connection, particularly during pivotal moments like their first meeting.

The novel’s pace is slow, with a focus on the mundane details of daily life and the gradual development of the characters’ relationship. While this can create a sense of intimacy and depth, it also makes the narrative feel drawn out. The mystery of the "Structure" and the characters’ disappearance takes a backseat to the slow build-up, and the eventual revelations come after a lengthy wait. This pacing might be frustrating for readers who prefer a more immediate plot progression.

Despite these issues, the novel's final sections, where the mysteries start to unravel and the world’s complexities are revealed, offer a more engaging experience. The buildup of intrigue and the connections between the characters’ discoveries provide a satisfying payoff, though it is somewhat marred by a cliffhanger ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

What an interesting concept. I found the curiosities in this book fascinating, especially the exploration of the deep sea and the unanswerable mysteries it holds.

I was really intrigued by the plot and premise.

The characters seemed interesting.

However, as much as I was intrigued by the plot, the writing style just wasn't for me. It took me a while to get through this book. A majority of the book is writing that didn't seem to move the plot forward quite that much, so I struggled to hold interest. Don't get me wrong, the writing itself was beautiful, but for me personally, it didn't fully grasp me enough.

I think I would have been more engrossed if the story wasn't in letter format.

I especially found it confusing for the first third of the book when it was skipping to the different time frames and different characters. Hence why it took me a while to get into this book.

Overall, it was a very intriguing story with a writing style that wasn't really for me, which is a shame because I would love to see how this story plays out.

"My dear E.,
I have thought of nothing else but you and your letter over the past day or so, and I do not intend to start thinking of anything else anytime soon."

How did one book make me feel such a range of emotions!? Any book that centres around letters and messages is an ‘automatically add to TBR’ scenario for me, and despite a rocky start, ‘A Letter to the Luminous Deep’ didn’t disappoint.

After an event known as the Dive, our main characters live in an endless sea with only rare pockets of land, instead, man-made islands of floating homes and universities are precedent. E. lives in Deep House, the first underwater home of its kind, built by her mother and recognised for its ingenuity, but when an underwater earthquake destroys the house, it also vanishes E and her confidant, Henery. E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left the pick up the pieces of their disappearance one year later.

I also have to add here that the rep was also fantastic, from what I can say of personal experience and just the careful inclusion. This included OCD, anxiety, agoraphobia and the many characters being queer, with both Sophy and Vyerin are in same-sex relationships.

Admittedly, it was hard to get started. I was thrown by the multiple POVs and trying to keep track of two different timelines of letters that often seemed to intersect. As well as (and I don’t normally say this) a lack of world-building-especially with the amount of academic jargon specific to the world thrown in. What made the difference when getting started was listening to the audiobook alongside reading my e-copy to get a feel for everyone and all the different voices and then switching it up as needed. It has a full cast and it brought the story to life.

I loved the characters, the writing gave a very Becky Chambers/ Heather Fawcett feel and I enjoyed falling in love slowly with all their quirks, plus hearing their hopes and dreams told in letter format was both eloquent and heartbreaking at times. I enjoyed how Sophy and Vyerin are brought together through the tragedy and that, although the romance rep is so cute, friendship also played such a large part in the tale. It gave academia/found family vibes (my fav).

I was a bit confused (and still am) about what was happening at times and quite how it ended (but by the end I was so invested in the character arcs to worry too much). Plus, although the majority of the plot features a bit of mystery but mainly different romance and friendship, I genuinely did gasp at twists towards the end. It didn’t help I had no idea this wasn’t a standalone, I was shook and still need the sequel ASAP.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel and whatever the author writes next.

A really unique story idea that was so enhanced by the use of the epistolary format. A joy to read and highly recommended.

3.5 stars

after the first few chapters, I soft-dnf'd this book. while I was intrigued by the writing style, I was not really in the mood for this type of story at the time. then yesterday, I picked it up again, and I'm so happy I did!

what I really liked:
🪸 original & beautiful writing, in the forms of letters and notes
🪸 disability rep (neurodivergent MCs)
🪸 mystery
🪸 scholars talking about their research

but I have to say, it is not an easy story to get into, especially without a glossary. but once you get used to all the terminology and the worldbuilding, it is a magical journey indeed. I can't wait for the second book!

Epistolary novels are SO fun! I think I will enjoy almost anything written in letter format that is at least a tiny bit cosy. I'm really glad I read this one.

I tried to read this, twice. Both unsuccessful. Something about the writing felt like blocking me out🥲 i couldn’t connect with the story at all. Quite disappointing since this was marketed to be perfect for Emily Wilde’s fans…

I really wanted to love this but sadly it just didn’t work for me.

I’ve never read a book that is solely made up of letters, it was an interesting concept but it meant that the actual plot took a long time to get going. I also didn’t get much of a feel for the underwater setting. I might try again as I think reading it a second time when I already know where the plot is going it things might work better.

Part love story, part deep sea fantasy, part parody of the insanity of academic culture - I’m not sure what A Letter to the Luminous Deep was trying to be. The love story was cute, and I enjoyed reading the letters which saw E. and Henerey’s relationship blossom.

On the whole this was a fun little read, the mystery was there and I presume this is going to be part of a series but there wasn’t really enough there to have me eagerly anticipating the next book in the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I truly think this was a case of "it's not you, it's me",
The concept of the book was amazing and so creative, I loved the underwater setting, the mystery to be solved and the romance between the characters.

I find epistolary writing extremely intriguing, I haven't come across it often but I think that's what makes it so special.
And while I do think it was really well done here and even managed to give us character development, which is so hard to do in this character style, I just felt a bit disconnected from the story because of it. Maybe it is is just because I'm not used to it, but it just didn't quite click for me.

I know this is cozy fantasy/mystery, but I still wish there had been a bit more plot. It felt like nothing was really happening or going on until the very end where the book just stops as it starts getting interesting. I found that quite disappointing and wish that there had been better pacing.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to read the sequel, I want to see what happens but since I assume it will be in the same style as this, I'm not quite certain I will enjoy it as much as I would hope.

Still, this is a fantastic debut and it will certainly enchant its audience that it's meant for!

I love an epistolary novel so that was what first attracted me to this book. Upon reading, I was quickly intrigued by the world building and came to love the characters, whom we get to know through various letters.

The book follows correspondence between Sophy and Vyerin as they try to piece together what happened to their sister and brother respectively and grow to know each other over the course of their investigation. They themselves are witness to the developing relationship that took place in correspondence between Sophy's sister E and Vyerin's brother Henerey. The setting is almost Waterworld-esque but with a magical twist instead of that apocalyptic tint and its wonderful.

I didn't know at the outset that there would be more books but am desperate to read the next one. I'd recommend for cosy fantasy and romance readers.

I was so excited for this, but unfortunately it just fell flat for me. Epistolary novels can work really well, but in this case, not so much. We have, I suppose, 4 main characters in here, but without the information preceding each letter, I would not have been able to distinguish between any of them. For a fairly short book, this took me a long time to read, and I think it was because I just didn't care about what was going on. We know Henery and E. are missing in present day, but I'm not sure we ever understand what happened, what led up to that day - there was just no emotional investment into the story. It's very beautifully and poetically written, but I can't say I'll be continuing with the series.

So it's official, cozy fantasy isn't my thing AT ALL. I need larger stakes, action and possible character deaths. Now this book had beautiful writing, some of those quotes were *chef's kiss*. The romance was also well written and I rooted for the characters, plus my brain was stimulated by the switch in POVs so I didn't mind. It's just that I got a little bored because of the lack of stakes.

I really loved A Letter to the Luminous Deep, which I believe is Sylvie Cathrall’s debut. When I came up for air after finishing it, I was really startled by the number of DNFs, ambivalent reviews, and people who downright hated it. I can understand why, though: it’s written in an entirely epistolary format, which mostly works, and the letters are written with a sort of Regency-level formality and style. That means the execution of the plot takes some serious time, since the letters need to build characters and relationship in order to make the plot feel satisfying.

The frame story behind why these letters have been collected is equally important, in the end, to the story revealed in the letters themselves. There’s basically three threads:

1. Henery and E. form a friendship, discover something mysterious, and investigate it, ultimately leading to their disappearance;
2. E.’s sister Sophy is part of an expedition deep underwater to study wildlife, which encounters something strange as well;
3. Sophy and Vyerin (Henery’s brother) try to piece together their siblings’ archive of letters to understand how their connection formed and what happened to them.

The third thread is fraught with grief and fondness, as Sophy and Vyerin try to figure out what their lives look like without their siblings, try to give comfort to one another, and work through the loss to remember who their siblings were and share something of that. The first and second threads take time to reveal their secrets, and we discover what happened at the same pace as Sophy and Vyerin come to understand it themselves.

It’s a story that rewards some patience, and which may depend on how well the letters hit for you. I had no trouble telling who was writing what letter, though I know other readers did, and I loved E. and her bravery in vulnerability, discussing what is clearly obsessive-compulsive disorder, and possibly also social anxiety or maybe generalised anxiety disorder. I thought that portrayal was well done, as someone who has OCD/GAD, and I wasn’t surprised to learn that Cathrall has OCD. (I didn’t find it triggering, for what it’s worth, though the things that get to me are a little different from E.’s triggers.)

I’ve seen people describe this one as cosy, and I think it both is and isn’t. There’s a deep sadness here in knowing from the start that E. and Henery are gone, and in following Vyerin and Sophy’s path to understand why they died.

There are a few points that felt overly awkward to me in the epistolary format, and the one that jumped out was Henery and E.’s first meeting, where we know what happened because they wrote notes to each other on a programme because E.’s brother is putting on some kind of performance that’s too loud for them to hear each other. It’s a reasonably neat way of getting them into the same place but preserving a text record, but what they’ve supposedly written to each other (in full sentences, with punctuation) doesn’t ring true — even lampshaded by the commentary of Sophy, who says her sister would’ve used full sentences to calm herself down.

Still, for the most part it worked well for me, and I felt enchanted. I’m eager to read the next book, and wondering how on earth it can be achieved through the medium of letters.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep has an original structure of a collection of letters between various characters. They are written in a beautiful and flowery language, as most writers are academics. Unfortunately, that also means they are filled with details and anecdotes that do not move the story forward. In this book, the letters are mixed without any order, including those written in the past by E. and Henerey and those by their siblings. I constantly checked the letter’s date to place it in the storyline and cross-reference it with previous correspondence to understand what the author was writing about. This was too much effort. Also, the pacing is incredibly slow, especially at the beginning.

To sum up, this novel is beautifully written but does not follow a linear plot. I didn’t enjoy reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for this review.

Apologies for my delay, I’ve had a very hectic few months.

But this book wasn’t really for me unfortunately. Wasn’t a fan of the epistolary format, which is fully on me.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book.

Man, I was so excited for this one, but sadly, not a lot about this worked for me and ultimately, I really had to force myself to keep reading every time I picked it back up.

Starting with the positives: I thought the setting was very unique and you could really tell how much thought and care went into building this world and its history. That's really the biggest part that kept me reading: I wanted to know more about this society built on a planet that's largely water, and especially about the skyborne society they apparently originated from. Super cool concept, and I have to admit, as the story picked up a bit towards the last fifth or so, I for sure had much more fun with it!
I also really appreciate the OCD representation in this. I know that the author drew from her own experiences and again, I think the thought and care translates very well. It's apparent how dear this was to the author's heart.

The not so great: This was completely overwritten, in my opinion. Now, I'm a person that adores purple prose and flowery writing. But given that this entire book is written (mostly) in letters, the meandering was simply much too much for my tastes. On top of that, I just didn't think that the letter writing styles of the various characters were distinct enough to truly differentiate between them and grant each one their own voice. Yes, some of them had slight variations, but the general tone was much too similar, which isn't great when the general tone isn't working for you, obviously.

That being said, I believe that the best way to approach this book is to read the first couple of pages or chapters and see how the writing style resonates with you. If it's not your cup of tea? Put it down, it's not gonna change much. If you're enchanted by it? By all means, do continue, you will probably really enjoy the book!

I really struggled with this book, and I think that it was mostly due to the epistolary format. I love letters in books, but the characters “voices” all sounded very similar and I found myself forgetting who was writing to whom. I kept needing to go back a few pages to check, which really pulled me out of the story. I also found myself getting annoyed with the overuse of exclamation marks.

I also felt that the format didn’t allow for much world building, and I didn’t feel like I knew the characters very well at all. I love books that include the ocean, so I was really disappointed that more emphasis wasn’t given to the setting.

I found the pacing to be slow and the plot didn’t grip me at all, which, coupled with the writing style, meant this book was just not for me. I do think if you enjoy a slower plot and an epistolary format, you may really enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an eARC.

In the depths of an underwater world two strangers find one another through the magic of the written word. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall is a debut filled with heartwarming romance, wholesome characters and a world that wraps readers in curiosity and awe.