Frances Hardinge has an amazing way with words and an incredible imagination. All her books are filled with something new and exciting to read.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

My review:🌟🌟🌟🌟

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge is set in a world where the gods ruled the seas.  They were in the form of giant sea creatures, and could cause death and chaos when they wanted!  Sacrifices were made, priests advised what to do, and then one day thirty years ago, all of the gods killed each other, and no one knows why.

Now, there are bits of god to be found in the bottom of the sea, valuable to some, and dangerous to collect.  Hark is always dragged into ill-advised things by his best friend, Jelt, and tonight will be no exception.

This is a fantasy novel, with a rich back story.  I enjoyed the story unfolding, and learning more about Hawk, Jelt, and the gods.  

 Deeplight  was published on 31st October 2019 and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

You can follow Frances Hardinge on  Twitter  and her  website .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, and so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Pan Macmillan .

Stupendous storytelling, ferocious imagination : the death of gods

I am (again) in awe of Hardinge’s extraordinary, rich imagination coupled with her blazing craft of beautiful writing. She deftly juggles all the balls of a complex plot, a teeming, well defined cast of individual, resonant characters and voices and the ability to create a richly pictorial world with exactly the right amount of detail. I was perfectly caught on the balance between need to know what happens next turn another page and linger and savour and fully appreciate each full moment

Like Philip Pullman, Hardinge is a writer of massively rich story about major themes, issues and complex matters, all in the genre of YA literature – but actually, the genre is irrelevant – this is literary fiction, speculative fiction, science fiction/fantasy fiction tell-me-a-story fiction for adults too. All that really gives the ‘YA’ is that the central characters are a young boy, Hark, a young girl, Selphin, and violent, charismatic Jelt, who, whilst still young, is in that place where he should probably be called man rather than boy

There is an invented world here, Myriad, a chain of islands. Myriad was powerful, and feared, ruled by protected by , subservient to, the fear of terrifying underwater gods. The rest of the world, ‘The Continents’ respected and needed Myriad as a major trading partner, because they too feared the power of the terrifying, destructive gods. But now, after a major event, The Cataclysm, the gods are all dead, though their physical remains still have power and currency. Adult readers, and for all I know, younger readers, might see parallels out in the world with other rising and falling empires, both of now and of earlier times

The three major characters all come from society’s margins. Hark and Jelt, orphans from homes, Selphin a pirate smuggler’s daughter. Hark and Jelt are bound by friendship, the younger boy protected from violence by the older. Hark has gifts of the mind, the imagination, and the heart. He is cheeky, introspective, a gifted liar or teller of stories. Jelt is a fearsome example of someone whose primary need is for power over others – and his niche is towards the criminal.

I suppose the only ‘other’ dimension which might indicate that this book is for younger readers is that none of the dynamics between individuals are of a sexual nature. It is friendship, loyalty, in all its complexity – loyalty to whom, to what, and loyalties torn by conflicts with other loyalties which are constantly breaking and reforming

A breath-taking, wonderful book

It's hard not to picture the Greek Islands when reading this lovely story. The mix between a group of islands and the remnants of an ancient catalogue of mythological gods is totally captivating. In one respect, the story is quite a credible tale rather than one of fantasy. There are signs of the gods who once filled the sea but are long gone. Mysterious and magical, as all the creatures of the sea are, it's easy to engage with the book because, let's be honest, how many times have we found something almost alien washed up on the shore and wondered about its origins and powers?

The plot revolves around two orphaned boys who scavenge the beach for 'godware' (from now on that's what I'll call seashells and the suchlike) in order to sell to tourists and folk who want these collectible and often rare items. Some still carry the powers of the gods, perhaps. In many cases they are indulging in illegal activities and the youngest boy is arrested and sold as a slave, to a doctor. He works at the Sanctuary, where old monks live, complete with their knowledge of the gods and life of yore.

This is more than a dreamy story about mythical sea creatures though. The relationship between the boys is a complex one; they rely on each other but there is bullying, insecurities and coercion disguised as loyalty, protection and brotherhood. Then there are ruthless gangs who work the shore as well. At times, the story pads along at the same pace the myths of Ancient Greece do. But it's all good - really good storytelling.

I read Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree a few years ago and I absolutely loved it, so I was really excited to read Deeplight. Also, can we just take a moment to admire its GORGEOUS cover?

Deeplight is an extremely original book, and the author's world-building is top notch. The islands' history and lore are explained in detail, and the people's complex relationship with their now-extinct gods is explored without it ever feeling like a (fictional) history lesson. It does, however, really take its time with this and I ended up finding the slow pace of the first half rather challenging. I struggled a bit to push through it, and the second half more than compensated for it, but it could easily put some people off.

I really enjoyed seeing the characters evolve throughout the book, although I was more than a little frustrated with them most of the time. Hark was definitely one of the most infuriating characters I've seen in a long time, as he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again. He is completely beholden to his best friend Jelt, who supposedly looks after Hark but is rather obviously manipulating and coercing him the entire time. This extremely toxic friendship is the focus of most of the book and, while it does make sense that Hark would be the last one to realise what is glaringly obvious to literally everyone else in the book and out, I was quickly bored by this dynamic.

After pushing through a slow start and an annoying main character, we are rewarded with a wonderful second half and some brilliant supporting characters, all of which more than made up for this book's flaws. I would have liked to see some more of the gods, but what we did get was enough to keep me reading.

Overall, this was a very original and unique fantasy. It's a slow burn with a very slow start and depicts a toxic relationship which could be triggering to some, but once the pace picked up it was definitely worth the initial struggle.

This is the story of a people set in the stony islands of a treacherous sea. It is a world which used to be dominated by gods. But the gods died in a spectacular battle amongst themselves. Now life is dominated by scavenging for godglass, the remains of the Gods, in the sea. the 15-year old Hark is one of the teens who aim to make a career of this. However, his friend Jelt has other plans. In one of the boys' outings Hark gets arrested and this arrest leads him to a life away from scavenging, working for the museum curator who collects godglass for scientific purposes. When Jelt comes back for the reluctant Hark, they find a strange pulsating object that seems to affect them. As Jelt spends more in its vicinity, he starts to change and Hark must find answers as to what it is that they found to save his friend. This quest leads Hark on a journey of discovery about the truth behind the disappearance of the Gods and leads him to great danger.

An excellent fantasy adventure, this book will grip you until the bitter end.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

I love Hardinge's fantastical worlds. Deeplight introduces you to a marine world like no other full of adventure and delight!

Deeplight is one of the most absorbing and utterly beautiful fantasy books I've ever read. The worldbuilding is astounding, the lore and mythology of the undersea gods is fascinating, and the plot is unflinching, twisty and brilliant fun. The pages absolutely flew by as I was enveloped in the world and caught up in the adventure; as is the case with all amazing books, I wish it were longer! I honestly cannot rate Deeplight highly enough; it completely surpassed my expectations, and it certainly won't be the last book by Frances Hardinge I'll read.

Deeplight is only the second Frances Hardinge book I’ve read, the first being The Lie Tree (which was nominated for the YA Book Prize back in 2016).

Being described as a cross between Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea and Frankenstein, I automatically had very high hopes for this novel.

Things started off well. In this world the people worshipped massive gods of the sea, but they mysteriously tore each other apart decades ago. People now desperately dive and scavenge for pieces of the gods, which sell for a fortune.

Hark’s friend Jelt gets them caught up in some shady business and Hark gets arrested. Luckily a scientist from one of the other islands takes pity on him when he’s auctioned off – there isn’t enough room in prison, causing convicts to be sold as slaves to work off their sentence – so Hark gets a fresh start away from Jelt, working in an ex-monastery caring for the people who used to dedicate their lives to the gods and assisting the scientist who saved him on the side.

Everything seems to be coming up roses for Hark, until Jelt rocks up again. He’s found a bathysphere – an old submarine-esque machine with which the priests used to visit the gods – and he’s decided that they’re going to go scavenging for pieces of the gods. However, things then take a dark turn: Jelt is killed in an accident involving the bathysphere. Hark feels pulsing in the water – the heart of one of the gods – which revives Jelt, but he doesn’t come back quite the same as he was…

When I reviewed The Lie Tree I said that it was perfect for “older and more mature readers of the middle grade genre”, and I stand by that in relation to Deeplight. However, where The Lie Tree also appealed to adult readers despite the fact that it had a young protagonist, Deeplight was a struggle for me to read for the exact same reason.

15-year-old Hark is very naive and reads as very young for his age. In all honesty I didn’t realise that he was 15 until just looking the book up on Goodreads – if that fact is mentioned in the novel, it is only mentioned very briefly – and he reads as either 12 or 13 at the very most. Jelt seems a lot older, and if we were following him I’d be more inclined to believe that this is a YA novel, but as he manipulates Hark and gets him into all of these situations he makes Hark seem like a child.

The only reason I can think that Deeplight is being marketed as YA is because of its length. This beast is over 400 pages and, I’ll be honest, I felt every single one of them. It is an absolute DRAG to read. I hate saying that, because I have been so excited about reading more of Frances Hardinge’s work, but I really did have to force myself to get through Deeplight. If I hadn’t been reading it for the YA Book Prize shortlist I probably would have ended up DNFing it.

A huge part of the plot is Hark coming to terms that Jelt is a bit of a monster – figuratively, and then literally – and realising that their friendship has been toxic since the beginning. However, the reader can see that very clearly within the first couple of chapters as Jelt bullies Hark into doing things he really isn’t comfortable with, making Hark’s slow realisation rather frustrating.

Sadly the gods seem to be the least important part of the plot, and they were the only thing that I was really interested in. After finishing Deeplight I read the short story Dolor’s Legs (which was available as Read Now on NetGalley for the month of April to celebrate the release of the paperback), and I ended up giving that four stars. I think it was only about fifteen pages, but it was much more interesting because it was wholly focused on one of the gods!

I’m definitely in the minority here – the Goodreads ratings for Deeplight are overwhelmingly high – so I might reread this in the future now that my expectations for it have shifted to see whether I appreciate it more second time around. I think I would have appreciated this far more if it had been marketed as middle-grade, because it definitely doesn’t feel like a YA story, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The Gods are dead, but they are not forgotten.
When a job goes wrong and Hark is caught, he ends up indentured and put to work looking after the old priests. Here he's expected to find out as much as he can of their stories of the Gods before they are lost forever. In the meantime, his accomplice has escaped capture but is now in even worse danger.
I found it really hard to understand Hark's loyalty to Jelt, despite the history they are supposed to share. It just doesn't seem enough, given his general behaviour towards Hark.
While I wanted to know what would happen at the end, I didn't really feel invested in this story. Most of the time I wasn't even sure exactly what the main story was.
The writing was amazingly descriptive and expressive. I could almost picture myself in the undersea.

Frances Hardinge has a wonderful skill with words, and an amazing ability to create strange new worlds. The Myriad is amazing: islands recovering from the pre-Cataclysm event, the war of the gods. And what gods! Behemoth sea creatures, capricious and cruel, living in a fearful 'undersea'. Exposure to this strange not-water leaves people 'marked' with strange mutations, but people risk it to recover god remains, sold for huge sums for their amazing properties.

Orphans Hark and Jelt make their way in the world scavenging, and swindling traders come to the islands. The pair are like brothers; Hark owes his life to Jelt's care when he might have starved as a young child. Now, however, Jelt's recklessness is in danger of causing a rift between the two - not least when his latest scheme lands Hark in deep trouble. So when Jelt ends up in even straits, Hark's loyalty is put to the ultimate test...

As we find out about the old gods and the islands of Myriad, the story revolves around the relationship between Hark and Jelt. It questions how much we owe our friends and family. I was screaming at how badly Hark is used and made to feel at points! A subplot mirrors the theme, between a fearsome gang leader and her deaf daughter. I was impressed with the way the disability was handled in the book, too.

Absolutely recommend this. It's full of secrets and darkness. It's hugely inventive. And it hits all the emotions along the way.

Not for me at all. Maybe this was too YA - can that even be a thing?

The plot reads - On the jumbled streets of the Island of Lady's Crave live Hark and his best friend Jelt. They are scavengers: living off their wits, diving for relics of the gods, desperate for anything they can sell. But now there is something stirring beneath the waves, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it. Something valuable. Something dangerous.

Unfortunately I am no longer interested in reading this book, therefore I will not be reviewing it any further.

I was really unsure about this book at first; it felt very different from the books I generally read & I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it. However, slowly the story started to pull me in & by half way through I was completely hooked. This is such a unique book, with a very unique view on what a god is & I loved the secrets of the sea created by Frances Hardinge. This was a book that made me wish I could swim like I could as a child, but it also made me very, very grateful for stories.

⚠️ This book contains violence & discussions & phobias of drowning ⚠️

There was a lot to unpack in this book and ultimately, I felt that all of the various threads didn't quite tie together. It tells the story of Hark, a young man living in the shadow of the Undersea and the memory of the horrific gods that used to live there.

The Positives: I loved the idea of the Undersea and the fact that elements of dead gods could be used for the betterment of the people living on the islands. The world created here was fascinating and I would have liked to see more exploration of the gods. Hardinge is great with atmosphere and there are some genuinely creepy scenes and images in the narrative that I really appreciated.

The Negatives: The writing has a coldness to the tone that keeps the reader at somewhat of a distance from the characters, which made it difficult to connect with them. Consequently, a lot of the impact of the action was lessened. I also thought that the narrative had a bit of a muddled feeling about it and there were times when I found it difficult to keep all of the elements straight.

Overall I thought this was an atmospheric and interesting story, but it could have gone much further and isn't a new favourite.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a great new novel from Hardinge. All the usual mixture of fantasy, supernatural and adventure with elements of thriller set in a timeless place not of this world are there along with very engaging characters. Flawed heroes, villains with heart. You care what happens to them all.

I really tried to enjoy this, but it wasn't for me. From the get-go, I had very minimal understanding of what was going on and that seemed to continue the whole time I was reading. I don't think it had anything to do with the writing style, more so just that the book itself wasn't entirely to my taste.