Lauren
Dark Water Daughter follows Mary, a stormsinger forced into the service of pirates, and Samuel, a pirate hunter. Through a series of events, the two find themselves woven into the same story, but not always working in tandem.
I had to really think about my review for this book. To be completely honest, I do think my current mental space did impact my enjoyment of the book as well as the way I read it. I’ve been dealing with a lot of anxiety, which made focusing more difficult than usual. I also obtained this book via my library, but for whatever reason it was only available to read through Libby and could not be sent to my kindle. As such, I had to read it on my phone, which with notifications also provided some distractions. I tried to take that into account with my review, but even considering it, it’s hard to deny those factors had an impact on my experience.
That being said, I think the strongest parts of this book are the story telling and the magic. The story telling is done very cleverly, giving the audience bits and pieces they could put together to start gaining a bigger picture of what is happening as the characters do. This way of story telling also made all of the characters feel real. Even the side characters had backstories and motivations of their own without feeling like they were bogging down the story.
And the magic. It was unique and I’m excited to see more of it in book 2. The gist is that there are some people with magic, some without. At this time I’m not sure what determines who gains it and who does not. There are stormsingers, whose singing can control weather. Magni, who can push their influence on others. And sooths, who can see snippets of the past and future. (Note: I believe there are more, but these are the prominent types in this book). Each of these magics are connected to the Other, a plane that seems to be the origin of magic. There are also ghitings, spirit-like creatures connected to wood and trees. The magic is really well explained and the details are nicely woven throughout the story.
My issues with the book comes in mostly with the characters. I know I praised how real they felt, and they did, but I didn’t really connect with them. They were interesting, but they felt distant in a way. I really liked that Mary had moments of strength and softness. I liked Samuel’s motivations and sense of duty. They were well crafted, but there was something missing that prevented me from really caring about them. I’m also fairly certain you’re supposed to want to root for Mary and Samuel to be together, but honestly? I felt 0 chemistry.
I’m going to be vague for the sake of not giving spoilers, but another issue I had was with Randalf’s crew. Maybe I missed something, but from the events in the book, I was left really confused about what actually happened to them.
Dark Water Daughter follows Mary, a stormsinger forced into the service of pirates, and Samuel, a pirate hunter. Through a series of events, the two find themselves woven into the same story, but not always working in tandem.
I had to really think about my review for this book. To be completely honest, I do think my current mental space did impact my enjoyment of the book as well as the way I read it. I’ve been dealing with a lot of anxiety, which made focusing more difficult than usual. I also obtained this book via my library, but for whatever reason it was only available to read through Libby and could not be sent to my kindle. As such, I had to read it on my phone, which with notifications also provided some distractions. I tried to take that into account with my review, but even considering it, it’s hard to deny those factors had an impact on my experience.
That being said, I think the strongest parts of this book are the story telling and the magic. The story telling is done very cleverly, giving the audience bits and pieces they could put together to start gaining a bigger picture of what is happening as the characters do. This way of story telling also made all of the characters feel real. Even the side characters had backstories and motivations of their own without feeling like they were bogging down the story.
And the magic. It was unique and I’m excited to see more of it in book 2. The gist is that there are some people with magic, some without. At this time I’m not sure what determines who gains it and who does not. There are stormsingers, whose singing can control weather. Magni, who can push their influence on others. And sooths, who can see snippets of the past and future. (Note: I believe there are more, but these are the prominent types in this book). Each of these magics are connected to the Other, a plane that seems to be the origin of magic. There are also ghitings, spirit-like creatures connected to wood and trees. The magic is really well explained and the details are nicely woven throughout the story.
My issues with the book comes in mostly with the characters. I know I praised how real they felt, and they did, but I didn’t really connect with them. They were interesting, but they felt distant in a way. I really liked that Mary had moments of strength and softness. I liked Samuel’s motivations and sense of duty. They were well crafted, but there was something missing that prevented me from really caring about them. I’m also fairly certain you’re supposed to want to root for Mary and Samuel to be together, but honestly? I felt 0 chemistry.
I’m going to be vague for the sake of not giving spoilers, but another issue I had was with Randalf’s crew. Maybe I missed something, but from the events in the book, I was left really confused about what actually happened to them.