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adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, War
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Police brutality, Abandonment
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
'The Spear Cuts Through Water' by Simon Jimenez is a thoughtful fantasy that weaves together stories of gods, tortoises, the Moon, and more.
The story shifts between a play being put on in an drowned theater and the tale that is being performed all within the frame narrative of a young boy dealing with family issues. In a fantastical land, the emperor is preparing to make a pilgrimage to search for immortality. An act of violence the night before he leaves sets off a series of events that ripple out from the palace and ensnares two young men, one a soldier working at a gate and the other fleeing his past. As the men travel together to complete tasks that have been set for them, they grow closer to each other and the world that surrounds them.
Jimenez creates a dazzling fantasy filled with evocative prose, compelling characters, and a lush world. The play between the characters watching the performed story and the actual events being performed weave well together to create a story that goes far beyond both singular places. Jimenez perfectly fits the story to a single novel and everything feels well resolved at the end. Action moments are well choreographed and balance well with the tender moments of heart that fill the story. Honestly, I can't say enough good things about it. This book was pure magic and I am already considering Jimenez a favorite author. I'm excited to check out their first book and the books they publish in the future.
The story shifts between a play being put on in an drowned theater and the tale that is being performed all within the frame narrative of a young boy dealing with family issues. In a fantastical land, the emperor is preparing to make a pilgrimage to search for immortality. An act of violence the night before he leaves sets off a series of events that ripple out from the palace and ensnares two young men, one a soldier working at a gate and the other fleeing his past. As the men travel together to complete tasks that have been set for them, they grow closer to each other and the world that surrounds them.
Jimenez creates a dazzling fantasy filled with evocative prose, compelling characters, and a lush world. The play between the characters watching the performed story and the actual events being performed weave well together to create a story that goes far beyond both singular places. Jimenez perfectly fits the story to a single novel and everything feels well resolved at the end. Action moments are well choreographed and balance well with the tender moments of heart that fill the story. Honestly, I can't say enough good things about it. This book was pure magic and I am already considering Jimenez a favorite author. I'm excited to check out their first book and the books they publish in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder
Moderate: Physical abuse, Blood
Minor: Sexual content, War
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Minor: Child death, Cannibalism
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A dream about a play of a folk tale your grandmother used to tell you. And yet it doesn't feel distant and alien, like an abstract telling might, it just feels mythic and beautiful. ...okay well no some of it was quite graphic and I couldn't call it all beautiful, check the content warnings, but like it fit into the themes and vibes somehow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Abandonment, Alcohol, War
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
If you're looking for a grand, epic fantasy that's unlike anything you've read before, and you're patient enough for a non-linear reading experience that shifts POVs (and narration styles) and timelines every couple of pages, I recommend this book. It took a good while for me to "get into" it, or to even really know what's going on, but I believe this to be the author's intention - you will have lots of questions and few answers. Also, do look up the TWs ahead of time. This book can get unflinchingly grisly at some points; this does not reflect upon my overall review of the book, but if you can't stomach kind of intense gore, maybe pass on this one.
As is the case with a lot of 500+ page books, this book plays the long game - you will spend a good portion of it not entirely clued into what's going on. While it starts slow and sometimes lulls in the middle, the third act is excellently crafted. Anyone who loves a gritty, deeply human fantasy would enjoy this.
As is the case with a lot of 500+ page books, this book plays the long game - you will spend a good portion of it not entirely clued into what's going on. While it starts slow and sometimes lulls in the middle, the third act is excellently crafted. Anyone who loves a gritty, deeply human fantasy would enjoy this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Drug use
Violence, war, trauma, and ableism are described often and in great detail, as they're core themes to the book. So there's a lot of the above, sometimes depicted cruelly - people in power enjoying the suffering of others to a strong degree.
There's also many uses of the word cr*pple, and a sickly talking tortoise that's called "the Defective one." Some of the ableism is directed at mc Keema since he only has one arm.
A lot of vomit scenes/mentions.
A lot of references to bodily functions in general - piss, poop, and so on.
Sexual content includes references to pornographic tablets sold by a street vendor and some sexual interactions with the main two MCs, eventually culminating into a brief sex scene at the very end
The emperor's treatment of the empress in flashbacks could allude to sexual abuse.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism
Moderate: Sexual content
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, Cannibalism
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Cannibalism, War
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Murder
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Every other year there’s a book among the many books one reads that’s unlike anything else. It can be the way of storytelling like in The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) or the play with composite and punctuation marks in The Stone Heart (Arno Schmidt) or the gargantuan idea in The Dark Forest (Liu Cixin). Amazingly, The Spear Cuts Through Water was also such a book for me.
Why do I think it is so special?
- There’s the way the story within the story which also contains countless other stories is told.
- Then there is a potpourri of povs and tenses and among it everyone’s (except mine’s) least favourite second person pov. The narrator changes between paragraphs or even between sentences. One has to get used to it in the beginning but this unique style adds so much to the magic of this book.
- There are different time lines, a more or less modern one where there are cars and telephones and a war, the one of The Old Country where gods and magic rule and where your life can be forfeit in the blink of an eye, and the dream sphere where both worlds meet in a play on the stage of The Inverted Theatre set between The Moon and The Water and conducted by their child.
- Our protagonists in The Old Country’s storyline are on a quest to help the escaped Moon goddess to change the ruling of the country which implies to kill off her children and grandchildren. Let’s just say with one and a half exceptions this family is a living nightmare and one can relate to her wishes pretty soon. Oh, the two guys, Keema and Jun, have got 5 days to get this accomplished. No pressure.
- Our protagonist in the modern time is more elusive and maybe one isn’t as engaged in her family tale as in the other thread running but both are and will be connected.
- Its language is vivid, its imagery vast, and it gave me the most superb fairytale vibes.
- It’s also a very gruesome and cruel book which contains descriptions of all sorts of mental and physical violence and abuse. I went in without knowing more than its summary but I’m not one to be disturbed by a fantasy setting.
That said, I can see how this is not a book for everyone. And yet I loved reading it so very much.
I can imagine that The Spear Cuts Through Water would be an amazing play or movie and - now that I know the story - is a worthwhile audiobook to listen to. Though I’m not sure it’s a good idea to try the latter from the beginning because it takes a while to get used to its style and to make the connections between its different parts.
This is a book for people who love to be surprised, who like a challenge, and who can be patient when it comes to gathering what it’s all about. You’ll be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind tale about life, love, and - yes - also about death.
Why do I think it is so special?
- There’s the way the story within the story which also contains countless other stories is told.
- Then there is a potpourri of povs and tenses and among it everyone’s (except mine’s) least favourite second person pov. The narrator changes between paragraphs or even between sentences. One has to get used to it in the beginning but this unique style adds so much to the magic of this book.
- There are different time lines, a more or less modern one where there are cars and telephones and a war, the one of The Old Country where gods and magic rule and where your life can be forfeit in the blink of an eye, and the dream sphere where both worlds meet in a play on the stage of The Inverted Theatre set between The Moon and The Water and conducted by their child.
- Our protagonists in The Old Country’s storyline are on a quest to help the escaped Moon goddess to change the ruling of the country which implies to kill off her children and grandchildren. Let’s just say with one and a half exceptions this family is a living nightmare and one can relate to her wishes pretty soon. Oh, the two guys, Keema and Jun, have got 5 days to get this accomplished. No pressure.
- Our protagonist in the modern time is more elusive and maybe one isn’t as engaged in her family tale as in the other thread running but both are and will be connected.
- Its language is vivid, its imagery vast, and it gave me the most superb fairytale vibes.
- It’s also a very gruesome and cruel book which contains descriptions of all sorts of mental and physical violence and abuse. I went in without knowing more than its summary but I’m not one to be disturbed by a fantasy setting.
That said, I can see how this is not a book for everyone. And yet I loved reading it so very much.
I can imagine that The Spear Cuts Through Water would be an amazing play or movie and - now that I know the story - is a worthwhile audiobook to listen to. Though I’m not sure it’s a good idea to try the latter from the beginning because it takes a while to get used to its style and to make the connections between its different parts.
This is a book for people who love to be surprised, who like a challenge, and who can be patient when it comes to gathering what it’s all about. You’ll be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind tale about life, love, and - yes - also about death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Dysphoria