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A review by nclcaitlin
A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
3.5
Lorelei knew the shape of a fairy tale: a prison.
Two star students are pitted against each other for the same position on the Ruhigburg Expedition where their mentor and professor is murdered by someone on the team.
Lorelei had never believed she would be chosen. Her rival, Sylvia, was one of the most famous and beloved naturalists in the country and Lorelei was no one, a cobbler's daughter plucked from the despised Yevanverte. Sylvia was the princess and Lorelai was the witch, the goblin, the Yevanisch viper.
The Ruhigburg Expedition aims to discover the Ursprung, the fabled source of all magic and King Wilhelm's current obsession. If she succeeds, Lorelai can win the king’s favour and her freedom. However, the rest of the team also want to gain the King’s influence.
There was a lot of information dumping. You are thrown into a world where everything is established and little explanation is given so you are frantically trying to piece the world together.
Not to mention, it is clear the characters outside of Lorelei have a deep and complicated past and childhood together. Whilst this can feel frustrating to try and figure out connections and hatred and loyalty, it also meant you were fed tidbits of backstory as you go along, the same as Lorelei who is trying to discover the murderer.
After everything that had happened today, she had no energy left in her to yell. Slowly, Lorelei sat down in the middle of the street. I'm ready, she thought. Just strike me down now. God, however, was cruel.
Sylvia von Wolff's face appeared in her field of vision instead. "Please get up. People are beginning to stare."
Onto the sapphic yearning. Whilst other reviewers have complained that Lorelei’s hatred for Sylvia is unfounded, I disagree. Sure, she is being petty and insecure, yet you can see how she acknowledges how inane this bitterness is. However, it’s something she has learnt growing up ostracised from both her community and the world outside those walls.
She doesn’t hate Sylvia per se, just what she represents.
Lorelei is a pretty infuriating character. She wallows in self-pity and regularly fails to see beyond her own problems and self-defeatism. I think this was a deliberate ploy of Saft’s as she reveals the other characters’ own grievances, troubling choices, and rocky motivations.
I think this might have been helped by a longer book, but also one of the perks of this is it being a relatively standard-to-short length fantasy standalone.
Over and over again, she repeated to herself, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. Like an incantation— like a fairy tale repetition might make it true.
I think the ending was fairly rushed which ruined my enjoyment for me. I think this would have benefitted from being a duology.
I would recommend this if you enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and keep an eye out for August release The Phoenix Keeper! Also Evocation by ST Gibson!
Thank you to Del Rey for sending me the physical arc in exchange for a review!
Two star students are pitted against each other for the same position on the Ruhigburg Expedition where their mentor and professor is murdered by someone on the team.
Lorelei had never believed she would be chosen. Her rival, Sylvia, was one of the most famous and beloved naturalists in the country and Lorelei was no one, a cobbler's daughter plucked from the despised Yevanverte. Sylvia was the princess and Lorelai was the witch, the goblin, the Yevanisch viper.
The Ruhigburg Expedition aims to discover the Ursprung, the fabled source of all magic and King Wilhelm's current obsession. If she succeeds, Lorelai can win the king’s favour and her freedom. However, the rest of the team also want to gain the King’s influence.
There was a lot of information dumping. You are thrown into a world where everything is established and little explanation is given so you are frantically trying to piece the world together.
Not to mention, it is clear the characters outside of Lorelei have a deep and complicated past and childhood together. Whilst this can feel frustrating to try and figure out connections and hatred and loyalty, it also meant you were fed tidbits of backstory as you go along, the same as Lorelei who is trying to discover the murderer.
After everything that had happened today, she had no energy left in her to yell. Slowly, Lorelei sat down in the middle of the street. I'm ready, she thought. Just strike me down now. God, however, was cruel.
Sylvia von Wolff's face appeared in her field of vision instead. "Please get up. People are beginning to stare."
Onto the sapphic yearning. Whilst other reviewers have complained that Lorelei’s hatred for Sylvia is unfounded, I disagree. Sure, she is being petty and insecure, yet you can see how she acknowledges how inane this bitterness is. However, it’s something she has learnt growing up ostracised from both her community and the world outside those walls.
She doesn’t hate Sylvia per se, just what she represents.
Lorelei is a pretty infuriating character. She wallows in self-pity and regularly fails to see beyond her own problems and self-defeatism. I think this was a deliberate ploy of Saft’s as she reveals the other characters’ own grievances, troubling choices, and rocky motivations.
I think this might have been helped by a longer book, but also one of the perks of this is it being a relatively standard-to-short length fantasy standalone.
Over and over again, she repeated to herself, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. Like an incantation— like a fairy tale repetition might make it true.
I think the ending was fairly rushed which ruined my enjoyment for me. I think this would have benefitted from being a duology.
I would recommend this if you enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and keep an eye out for August release The Phoenix Keeper! Also Evocation by ST Gibson!
Thank you to Del Rey for sending me the physical arc in exchange for a review!