Dnf at 28%

I tried. It just didn't work for me. Mainly because I'm in a slump, and mainly because it was really slow-paced.

Fathomfolk has an interesting plot...but too many main characters and too much happening which just jumbled it all up. I wish the author had considered keeping 2-3 characters for this and 2-3 main characters for the second book.

Personally, I just wasn't excited enough for this book. It wasn't engaging me in any way and the only characters I liked were Kai and Nami.
Mira was just too uptight and Serena was pathetic. Cordelia's character was so bipolar that I can't even form an opinion on her.

Plus too much info and a setting dump. Although the writing wasn't bad...it's just that I couldn't figure out a solid setting. I try imagining various places in East Asia but none are coherent.

Plus Kai and Mira's relationship made no sense whatsoever. I wouldn't have been surprised if Mira ended up a con artist at the end of the book.

Yonakuni, Tiankawi...all this could've been executed wonderfully. The blurb for the book is so intriguing and suspenseful but I didn't feel it in the book itself.

If the book wasn't in the third person-multiple POV and if the book had been edited a few times.

I enjoyed this book immensely, but felt that it fell off the mark a smidge. I wanted to love the world and the characters but I was ultimately a bit disconnected because of how FULL the world is. I also really enjoy a bit more descriptive writing than the ‘telling” style here - but I can absolutely see that Eliza Chan is sinking her teeth into great story telling and she is an author to look out for as she develops her writing. I have no doubt that her next fantasy will be refined just a bit more to really let the story and characters shine through.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Orbit for a free e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

This book sounded absolutely amazing when i first read about it so needed to give it a go.
I very quickly came to realise it wasn't a book for me. I struggled with the political aspect of this and ended up DNF'ing fairly early on.

I may come back to this once its realised so that i can try it to with Audio and hopefully i can get past the first part.
Of what i readd, the writing is really good and the premise of the story is still really promising!

First of all, what a beautiful, gorgeous, breath taking cover!!! This book dealt with a lot of heavy topics such as xenophobia and checking one’s bias. It was a magical read. I loved the romance aspect of it!! Almost felt dream-like and surreal!

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

I was really excited for this! The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and the description sounded amazing. Urban Fantasy, but in a High Fantasy setting? I can count on one hand how many books of that genre I’ve read, and I wish there were more. And all that in an East Asian inspired world? Literally the perfect book for me.
Or so I thought.

The World Building really was amazing. Something entirely different and it was beautifully done. So many different species, an interesting political system. The characters themselves were well designed, different species, different backgrounds, different tempers. But it all simply didn’t come together.

It was so hard to get into. I’ve realised that many books with multiple characters nowadays start out with introducing all characters at once with very everyday settings. So you have lots of different names and species, stuffed into not that different situations and no idea how to tell them apart. After the first chapter each character appears in, you don't get that many descriptions anymore, so every time they reappear, you simply get a name and have to figure out from context which of the afore mentioned characters it might be. Because obviously I won't remember every single name immediately. I don't mind books were I have to think. But I don't want to have to concentrate on remembering the characters. That should be an absolute given! The author wants to throw you right into the story, but instead, you’re being kept apart from it and in my case – I couldn’t be bothered to care about any of them at all.
Sometimes, books with many different main characters can be good. Game of Thrones, for example, has so many characters, but all the main characters can easily be kept apart. Six of Crows is another one that really managed this, if you're looking for a more young adult option. But most authors should probably stick to one or two main characters.
For a good book I need fantastic characters. No matter how brilliant the story is – without interesting characters, I simply won’t care. I’d prefer to read a book with the most amazing characters doing absolutely nothing. Characters are what brings a story to life. And if I don’t care about the characters, it will be difficult for the book to properly capture me.
This book didn’t manage to do that.

Overall, it simply lacked emotions and life. Everything was well done, the world building, the characters, even the story itself was interesting and well thought out on paper. But it felt really flat. It started out confusing, ended up being boring. I didn’t care about anything at all. I wasn’t interested in the relationships, I couldn’t emphasize with the characters. I was bored to death.
Without spoiling too much – there is a death at the end of the book. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be really tragic, but I honestly couldn’t have cared less. I felt like I hadn’t even known that character, so why was I supposed to feel sad about their death?

I really wanted to like this book. But I didn’t care about it at all.

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This might be a sign for me to stay clear of Asian folklore..?
I don’t think this type of book is a match for me.
I really enjoyed the world building, I imagined it as ancient Singapore, it was beautifully described, I love the magic too, or at least what I understood of it. I did had more issues connecting with the characters, and that’s usually not a good sign, mostly for this type of genre.. there were moments I had the read some passages multiple time because I simply couldn’t connect with the moment.. I believe the book could be shortened..
I might still read book 2, whenever it comes out as like many others I am not satisfied with this ending, and I am curious.
It was a good read, although I am very thankful I got it at an ARC, I would have been pretty upset spending money on it..

Fathomfolk was an anticipated read for me. However, reading it felt underwhelming. The tone of the characters and worldbuilding felt juvenile despite the complex nature of the topic of the plot being based on prejudice. This wasn't really explored well and a lot of the worldbuilding is unclear.
The romance wasn't interesting and I found myself bored throughout the story. None of the characters really resonated as they felt inconsistent.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Set in a richly described, semi-submerged city, Fathomfolk tells the story from three main voices, and how they each are attempting to carve out their place within the heavily political and inequal Tiankawi. I walked away from this read with a solid image of the world Chan had crafted, from the factions of rich and poor, the multi-layered citizens existing there, and the delicate balance between subordination and revolution.

Mira, Nami and Cordelia all offered good insight into the corruption of Tiankawi, but I struggled to become truly invested in the characters themselves:

Mira's story is from a righteous point of view as a Fathomfolk born in Tiankawi and yet is still faced with hate for being seen as lesser than the ruling humans. Out of all three characters, I found Mira the most taxing to follow, because her angst didn't stem from having to face the constant setbacks, but rather, from her relationship with water-dragon and high minister Kai. Their relationship is established from the beginning, which is an interesting twist for fantasy and follows the rich boy-poor girl storyline. I grew tired of her struggles with comparing Kai and his lavish lifestyle to the one she grew up in and not being able to find a comfortable spot within her relationship. I often felt they truly lacked any substance until the latter portion of the book and it didn't offer enough to the storyline. By the time their relationship actually mattered, it felt rushed and more telling than showing.

Nami is Kai's sister who is exiled to Tiankawi from the deeper oceans by her mother at the beginning of the book. Upon arrival in the city, she is thrust into the excitement of the underground (underwater, perhaps?) revolution, and proactively takes part in protesting despite it causing issues for Mira and her brother. Whilst I can respect the author's intentional choice to make Nami naive and easily impressionable, I couldn't grasp her personality. It felt too much like she had no idea of who she was and would react according to the scene then any set character traits.

My favourite voice was Cordelia's and her delicate placement within the upper human circles despite her darker identity that belonged under the sea. She's determined and manipulative with every breath she takes, and whilst her seemingly villainous role does meet its consequences in the end, I appreciated her insight the most because she was actively doing something to better her cause. I liked that she used every facet, even just as simple as being evil and resourceful, to her advantage, but one thing that stood out to me was that there was no real end game for her power or greed. I suppose she didn't need one, but it seemed like she was hustling a lot for someone who didn't have an evident reason for why she pushed her husband to the very top. I had my suspicions, of course, but it would have been interesting to see what she planned to do if she did topple the human rule to her specifications.

I would have appreciated having more reason for everything in this book. Aside from showing discrimination of the Fathomfolk, the corruption and systematic oppression from the leading council and humans, and being set in an East-Asian world, the storyline didn't impact me in the way I had hoped. The characters' justification at times wasn't clear, and the explanation for the Fathomfolk's existence was bare bones. I had so many questions and found myself confused a lot of the time, feeling this book was more vibes than concrete at times. I also found it tediously dull and not paced well enough to keep me intrigued. The last portion of this book was decent, however, and whilst rushed to make it all work, I did like the storyline better there and the actions that were taken. It then just dropped away again into being vague, which given this is a start to the series, would work for those who plan to continue reading. I don't think I will be interested in doing so, and I did struggle with how to rate this because I was bored a lot, and yet, I also liked some of the author's crafting of the world.

The worldbuilding is vivid and interesting. It is fascinating and it reminded me, a bit, of Aliette De Bodard's "Dominion of the Fallen" series, especially for the vibes. But all the rest is just dull. I wasn't interested in the least in the plot, and I get that it was just starting, but my interest was nowhere to be seen, and the characters were, again, dull. I wasn't invested in any of them, I didn't really care at all. And I know that things may still change because I stopped reading around 20% but... but if after more than 80 pages the only thing the book made me feel is boredom, well, I don't see the point in going on with it.

Amazing premise; incredible worldbuilding - bust of a novel.

The book felt very juvenile and I didn't like any of these characters. I didn't like following them or their lives. However, the world they inhabit was so interesting. I wish authors loaned out settings to other authors.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This myth-rooted story of magic and revolution, set semi-submerged in Tiankawi sounded right up my street – it’s touted as ‘perfect for fans of Jade City’. I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into a chunky 400+ page adult fantasy! Tiankawi is a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest in surrounding waters and land. But, in the semi-submerged sea city, humans are looking down on the fathomfolk – sirens, switches, kelpies and kappas. This is an ambitious political story that layers in social disparity and economic inequality. Sadly, it didn’t really hit the mark for me.

First, it is far too long. I wanted a chunky adult fantasy, but this read as a bloated YA fantasy. You all know I love a little bit of YA, so that wasn’t the issue. The issue was that it required at least another round or two of edits. The second arc and boat race arc was where things started to fall apart for me. Scenes felt drawn out and messy, while the world building in the first part was really quite masterful. I also began to lose sense of the world too, since there’s a lot of crossovers in East and South East Asian names and traditions. Again, it’s fantasy so I can forgive a lot of this, but it also distracted from the social disparity themes. Am I supposed to be rooting for change… or to continue the blended communities…? I also found it strangely difficult at times to draw apart the three main characters: Mira, Nami and Cordelia. Given they’re supposed to be the female leads of three wholly different political parties/communities, this felt like an odd choice.
 
Oh, and the ending. Yikes. I’m not sure I want to see where the second instalment in the series will go.

3 Stars

Fathomfolk has strong themes of modern social issues and presents them within an immersive fantasy context. We are introduced to the half-submerged city of Tiankawi where wealthy humans sit at the top of the hierarchy, quite literally sitting above the poor and fathomfolk in their skyscrapers, while the water is heavily polluted and causing sickness. The story follows multiple perspectives, with all characters being very distinct and well developed. They are complex characters with their own self interest and world views which ultimately influences their actions in this story. The world building was really interesting and original and I loved the concept, however I did find when reading I was sometimes confused when we were on land and when we were in the water which did take me out of the story a few times.

I found one character in particular extremely frustrating with the choices she made, however after reflecting on how I feel about this book as a whole I realise that this is not that she is a badly written character but a fairly accurate portrayal of a character with privilege and naivety involving themselves in a violent political movement and the impact of grooming. There are lot of uncomfortable themes in this book which I think were done okay, but could have been done better to be more impactful.

While this was extremely action-packed, frustrating and heart-breaking, and there were elements I loved, I feel there was bit too much going on to adequately flesh out all the storylines. The first 30% of the book was very slow and I did feel like I had to drag myself through it, and when it did pick up it felt rushed and ultimately the conclusions very simplistic for such a complicated political setting.

I am also confused on whether this is supposed to be a adult fantasy or a young adult fantasy. It reads YA, however the themes and marketing suggest it is more aimed at an adult audience. Overall I am not 100% sure how I feel about this book but I will see how I feel when the sequel comes out before deciding if I want to continue reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This felt like a fresh fantasy amoung so mant chosen one fae books so it deserves credit for just being different tbh. It was also one of the more slow paced books ive read but that works in its favor it takes time to live in the world with systematic racism against the fathomfolk and build on plot points that pay off in the end one of them being the revolutionary group that one of the POV characters Nami gets involved with. I think the book handled that type of group very well especially the inner workings and how someone might get sucked in so easily. This also shows one of my favorite thing in books which is a slow buildup where the plot actually begins fairly early on but its like boiling frogs, you dont notice until its in your face and you realise all the little moments that have been happening.

As for negatives its mostly minor things like the disregard from Mira, another pov character of military hierarchy as she talks very disrespectfully to the wife of an officer who is her superior (not by rank as they are technically the same but by the fact that hes human i think?) such dialoge could have worked better as inner monolouge and she could lament on having to be polite when that is what she actually wants to say etc.

I also do not understand the comp titles for this book, ariel? the only hint i could lind was cordelia who is pretty much ursula but more interesting, when i think of comp titles i think of something that matches the plot or theme of the book not just some random detail. A wrong comp title will attract the wrong kind of readers who will just dislike the book. Id rather say that this is a more political less actiony fishman island arc from one piece.

DNF at 22%.

This book was interesting.. it had so much potential.
I was so drawn at first by the cover and blurb, but I couldn’t get into this book. I wanted to love it so much, but it was getting me in reading slump 😢
The world building was intense and difficult imo.
I couldn’t connect with the characters and the whole politics was not up my alley.
I think that several people would love this book, it was just nothing for me- feeling kinda guilty about it…
Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC!

DNF 44%

I unfortunately had to DNF this book as it has a scene where a character is trapped in a crowd crush incident which is one of my personal triggers. There was no trigger list going in for me to check this.

Overall, I really did appreciate the vivid depictions of the city and its intricacies. I do not think this author was trying to, as some reviews say, put a hodge podge of cultures together in a mash. I think it was more intended to be a heavily multi-cultural newer city, so this isn't London, Tokyo, Hong Kong with its long historical foundation but more like New York or Toronto. The issues discussed are very real.

However, as I have been reading up on story outlining recently I could really see the slowness in the story. The inciting incident basically happens at 40% and it feels like you are stuck in exposition/introduction waiting forever. Additionally, there were some very weird jumps between chapters. I had to check quite frequently if I had skipped pages because it felt like the scene cut off mid-thought. If this hadn't been an ARC I would have put this down earlier sadly because I was excited for this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

DNF

I was so excited when I was granted an e-arc of this book last year. It sounded so intriguing and the cover, it goes without saying, was stunning, but oof I found this hard work.

The concept was so cool, the execution wasn’t there for me. I found it… a bit boring? I realised I had to call it at DNF when a friend asked me how I was getting on with the book. I’d posted on my IG that I’d started and was struggling way back when I got it. I get slowly dipping in and then I realised 6 weeks had gone by and I’d forgotten about it. I think it’s all a bit heavy handed. I love politics and social issues in fantasy novels but this was chewy.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC copy and opportunity to review the book.

I’ve found this review really difficult to write. Predominantly because I didn’t massively enjoy this book, but can definitely see that others might.

That sounds really negative. Let me start by saying that I was really excited for this book; I love a fantasy that is steeped in other culture’s folklore and myth. It’s really fun and interesting to learn about other cultures, especially in a fantasy setting. And this book certainly it steeped in East Asian folklore and myth. The world-building is absolutely excellent; it is very imaginative and descriptive. An entire city has been mapped out in this book, and it has been done so well. You can see the lay of the land in your mind; you can smell the spices and salt in the air from the water. It’s very beautifully written.

For me, the biggest issue is that I found it to be quite a complicated and difficult to navigate story. It is very politically heavy, which is something that I don’t love in books, especially fantasy books. For me, I like my fantasy so be fun and fast-paced, and this just felt a bit too heavy. As it’s such a heavy book, I found it extremely difficult to properly get into the book. The story felt very slow in the first half of the book. I just couldn’t find the sweet spot where I was sucked into the story. It just didn’t ever materialise for me.

I have to admit, that I even contemplated not finishing it at all. I was struggling that much with it. Having said that, I am glad that I continued, as the second half is so much better than the first. The second half is far more fast-paced and action-packed. A LOT happens in the second half, that my brain had to work hard to keep up with the goings on.

I liked Mira a lot; I think she was a very commendable character that really wanted to do the best for her city and the fathomfolk. I think I would have connected with her more had I learned more about her past and family; I found it a little confusing. I also liked Kai, although he felt a bit like a one-dimensional person in the first half - I’m glad that he took more of the centre stage in the second half. Nami, I didn’t really care for. At all. I found her to be a completely frustrating character.

Possibly the best was Cordelia/Serena. She was a very complex and interesting character. I mean, I hated her with all of my being, but at the same time almost admired her. It’s strange.

Overall, I did enjoy this book (or, the second half of the book at least) and would probably recommend if you’re willing to be patient with it.

This book was just different enough to garner my attention. Based in Asian mythology it was interesting to read, the world building was a delight and held me imagining the settings. I was less interested in the people for some reason but still read to the end of the book. It was the sort of book I would like to take on holiday and read on a beach. Different but not too challenging.

Sadly I eventually decided to DNF this at 40%. I started to feel the urge to put this down around 30% but wanted to push through a little more to give it a good shot at picking up but unfortunately. I have started reading this twice since receiving this ARC in late September and on both occasions I've found myself really having to push myself to keep reading, despite the premise and prose both being good.

I was absolutely elated to start reading this, drawn in by the notion of class wars, fantastical / mythological renditions of ongoing oppression and prejudice and influence from East Asian folklore - but I found the huge amount of names, places, historical background and info dumping a lot to take in and it made me feel lost before we'd even had a chance to get to know any of the characters or their backstories. It's never my favourite but I can usually move past it if it happens in the first couple of chapters and then is clearly elaborated, but there were still new terms and references that I didn't understand being introduced up until the point that I DNF'd and there didn't feel like there was enough clear explanation or differentiation between characters for me to be able to clearly remember them or distinguish them moving forwards which really slowed me down.

By the time I'd gotten to the 40% mark there was really very little plot to speak of either - the pacing was so slow and I felt confused, not invested in any of the characters and not compelled to pick this up and keep reading, which is such a shame. I absolutely loved the premise for this, I think the concept of the fathomfol is so beautifully unique and the political themes that this was ready to highlight were a wonderful idea and incredible as a cultural commentary - I really REALLY wanted to love the book and revel in the fight for social justice, but unfortunately it just didn't come together for me.

I would still be really interested in trying this author again in the future as I think the concept was absolutely fantastic, the setting and the Asian folkore influence sounds wonderful and the writing could have been beautiful (hence the 3 star rating still) but the overall execution just didn't match up for me.

3.5 rounded to 4 Stars

Fathomfolk is a story of politics and magic set in the semi-submerged city of Tiankaw.
This book was pretty slow to start with but that was down to the world building and setting us up to understand this new world.

The world building is rich and descriptive but some parts I found lacking or wanting more. The plot was slow to start but if definitely picked up around the middle but I did feel it then tried to put as much as possible into the last half.

The book is told from three different POVs which is something I do enjoy. I liked how all their stories intertwined together. It also gives us the reader more insight into them as a character.

I look forward to reading more from this unique world and can’t wait for more.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.