Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

4 reviews

jvbook_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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nickel_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

East Asian mythology + racism + classism + climate crisis + political intrigue all in one marvelous debut. A cast of characters caught between status quo and revolution, Chan creates an exciting world centered in Tiankawi - a semi-flooded city. Fathomfolk forces us to grapple with our role in many social issues most prominent being xenophobia and refugee resettlement.
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aliteraryescape's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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sarrie's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 
TL;DR: Full of promising themes and a beautiful world, however cold and distant characters truly killed the story. 

My very short pitch for Fathomfolk would be Babel, but make it wet and a touch whimsical? This follows three primary points of view as political tensions come to a head between the Fathomfolk and the humans. We see this entirely through the Fathomfolk lens, as different levels of political alignment fight to either tip the scales into war or find a compromise. 

Our three leads are Mira, Nami, and Cordelia. Mira is the first of her kind, a half siren police officer who is dating the Fathomfolk ambassador to the humans. Nami is the sister of that ambassador, and also young and beyond impetuous. Cordelia is probably the most interesting, attempting to play all sides for her own gain. She fills many roles and I’m not going to talk on her much, as much of her story is spoilery. The thing about these characters is that we are so disconnected from all of them there is little to no emotional impact when things happen within the story. We aren’t shown much, traumatic moments are either shown in stark detail or we’re teased an event that never happened. Because of this it’s either very jarring (no emotional stakes till suddenly there are dead bodies on a ship), or very lackluster (oh no, I saw that coming a mile away). Besides that I had huge problems with Nami who is nothing but a young teenage girl stereotype and is written to be too stupid to live. She is a plot device to show us the more pasion driven side of things and it was, just not great. Mira starts interesting but quickly becomes cold and uninteresting. 

This should be a fast paced and tension filled story. And it is at times. I loved where Eliza Chan was trying to go with this, some of the conversations she started to make. However the style of writing, which kept us farther than arms length and at times couldn’t decide if it wanted to be whimsical or serious, really stopped it from speaking it’s truths. 

Give it a shot if you’re SUPER interested in the world and setting, otherwise it might be a skip. 
3 out of 5 
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