Reviews - A Dark and Drowning Tide

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

3.88k reviews for:

This one suffered from a lack of balanced pacing. I liked the folklore elements - particularly the little stories that were place liberally in the beginning and then all but disappeared - but I would have loved more of the differences between the provinces (duchies? Annexed nations? See, not really sure what those were other than that each of the noble characters was from a different one), but instead we got kind of blindsided by certain distinctions of those territories only when they became relevant. Also, the magic was way too hand-wavey. Lorelei, despite having minimal training, was always able to use magic conveniently without suffering any major consequences.

Also not sure why this is classified as dark academia? The university is barely present and no one is actually actively conducting research at any point except for Adelheid and Ludwig. I wish their respective fields of study were more relevant to the actual meat of the story.

As for the rivals-to-lovers romance, I actually rather liked it. Lorelei is so predisposed to roll her eyes at and poke fun at Sylvia that their constant awareness of each other just works rather seamlessly. Though I think Sylvia as “battle hardened warrior maiden” needed a bit more reinforcement - particularly at the part where her shiny silver saber designed to ward off magical creatures is pitted against a steel blade (a matchup which is clearly defined early on in the story and does not go as telegraphed)

Another thing that I really appreciated was just how well Jewish history (specifically the oppression of Jewish faith/practices and the corralling of Jews into slums) was integrated into this fictional and magical society. I think it gave an otherwise “fanciful” story quite a solid touch of reality without being heavy handed.

{My thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own}

wentfree's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous 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

elisep2112's review against another edition

4.0

Grew on me in the best way! The world building wasn't my favorite at the start, but this lesbians-at-sea, whodunnit adventure won me over. Great writing and I loved getting Lorelei's perspective.