Fathomfolk

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.

Where do I start with Fathomfolk? Overall, it was a decent read. There were some interesting elements of the plot line - I particularly enjoyed the bits with Cordelia/Serena, however the lack of connection between some of the character relationships and the ending let the book down.

Now the world building, that was impressive. Expanding upon the idea of the lands being drowned and taken over by the waters, Tiankawi is a solidly written half-sunken city. It was easy to submerge yourself into what was being introduced to you, in particular the difference in districts and the few moments we see where the community within get together.

However, the main characters felt a bit lacklustre. There was an idea of something that was building up for each individual, but I suppose there is only so much you can do when you begin to take a more political route in the story. The romance was quite difficult to read sometimes, even knowing that Nami and Firth were portraying a naive child with a manipulative Folk, but it was a bit uncomfortable. Also, Kai deserved better.

The ending was...anticlimactic. It was the sort of ending a child would provide to a mash-up improv in a playschool setting. To say that it was a disappointment would be putting it kindly. Hopefully there is some way to salvage this, seeing as this was an ARC. 

Sad to say, this is another book that I thought I was going to really enjoy due to the blurb but it left me wishing I DNF'd halfway through like I wanted to. 

First things first, if you want an adult fantasy with some sort of world-building that isn't painfully simplistic, this isn't it. This is my biggest complaint, what exactly is adult about it? It really feels like the world building was simply things that the author decided sounded cool but didn't think them through. Almost nothing get explained or built on, things “just are”. The book doesn't want you to think too hard on it, and that's fine, but it should not be advertised as adult fantasy – this is simpler than some YAs I've read. We don't even have an answer as to why the sea folk can shapeshift into humans. Can they only shapeshift into humans? Is there no other race out there? Why humans in particular? What gives them the ability to shapeshift? Is that considered magic or it “just is”? There is a sea witch which can shapeshift into other sea folk but we don't really get any explanation on how her powers work either, she is just a witch and that must mean she can do any magic that is convenient at the time. There is also no magic system whatsoever, the sea folk can water bend like 3 times in the book, that's it.

In general, the sea folk felt more like an aesthetic than anything that matters to the plot. The characters do almost everything (including sexual stuff) in their human forms. The entire book takes place in a single human city, the politics revolve mainly around whatever happens in said human city. We don't even know anything about the sea world aside from the fact it has royalty. You might as well just interchange the sea folk with humans, and you'd have gotten the same kind of story, there's nothing unique about them aside from making the book stand out for its aesthetic. 

Fathomfolk is mainly a political fantasy which i tend to like, but sadly it didn't make me invested in them at all. It's the most basic politics and revolution plots you can find in a lot of younger books. Was it bad? no, but it also that you haven't seen many times before.

The characters were fine, for the most part. The female leads were all distinct, even if the villain felt like she was a little too inspired by Ursula from The Little Mermaid... Sadly, all the male characters were plot devices and I bet I will forget them in 10 hours.

The ending thinks it does something shocking but it feels cheap and ridiculous. On the bright side though, I think it might pave way to plot at least somewhat more interesting than book 1 but I am not going to be coming back to this series.

All in all, I am very sad that this ended up being such a dreadful read for me, as it was one of my most anticipated releases for this year. Initially I kept giving it a benefit of a doubt because I thought it has potential on which it can build on but it just doesn't. 

Thank for Netgalley & Orbit for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Fathomfolk is a uniquely imagined fantasy novel, full of political intrigue and social commentary. The story happens in Tiankwani, a drowning city where humans and fanthomfolk live in a post-war environment. To aggravate the already existent tension between species, Humans have polluted the oceans (does this sound familiar?