I received an audiobook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: Adult
Star Rating: 4 stars
Series: first book
Blurb:
A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings’ disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance – and what it could mean for life as they know it.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
A LETTER TO THE LUMINOUS DEEP is a dual timeline tale of love – romantic and familial – and the mystery of an unusual object spanning both times.
There are three main strands to the book – E. and Henery getting acquainted and looking into the strange sphere, what happened at the same time on Sophy’s deep sea mission, and one year later as Sophy and Vyerin try to uncover the truth of what happened to their siblings while also processing their grief.
I liked that, while E. and Henery are in some ways the focus of the book, the second most important relationship is one of friendship. Sophy and Vyerin come together to process their grief, gradually forming a fierce friendship. It’s so nice to see friendships getting page time in SFF as romantasy takes over and it feels like it’s pushing other relationships out.
The mystery of the sphere is engaging, particularly as it’s seen from three different sides thanks to the strands. Because Sophy and Vyerin’s timeline follows them swapping letters including their siblings’, it meant the revelations stacked up about the same time, allowing for a lot of “oh” moments close together.
The book is told entirely through letters and document extracts. It is a deliberately stylistic choice that leads to a few contrived feeling moments of “the reader needs this info about the characters so let’s find a semi-believable way to get them to write about their appearance” etc. On the whole, though, it works.
I listened to this and was glad there were four narrators; Claire Morgan, Joshua Riley, Justin Avoth, and Kit Griffiths. I liked that each of the four main characters had their own narrator as it made it much easier to keep them apart, given the book is largely in first person. There are other characters’ letters and papers read, and the four narrators do read them so they were slightly harder to follow as if I missed the “letter from X to Y, year” at the start, I had to rely solely on context.
I thought this was a standalone novel but I was 5% from the end and certainly wasn’t near a conclusion. It turns out it’s a duology, for which I’m glad because it ends with a lot of questions unanswered, given the modern day cast are gearing up for an expedition of their own.
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 