Reviews

This was such a fascinating and captivating read. I admit that I was slow to get through the first half of the book, but the last half really picked up and kept me very interested.

There are a couple of things that I would say intrigued me and really made this a great read for me. First, I really <i>empathized</i> with Javier in so many ways. I think he was my favorite character in the book. There are things about him that probably shouldn't make him relatable - being extremely wealthy and out of touch with society at the top of that list - but I think as many famous people have said, they are real people with real issues and life troubles, much like us mere mortals. Sure, those problems are different and can often be solved more easily or more accessibly because of wealth, but the issues still exist. With Javier, his issues hit close to home with me, so I really connected with him. In addition to his character, I also found myself constantly intrigued by the world building. Even reading the ebook without any illustrations, I was able to easily picture the world and imagine myself there in vivid detail.

On the other hand, there were two things that left me wanting when I read this. First, I love a dual perspective, and occasionally I find a third perspective manageable, but I just didn't enjoy Oliver's perspective all that much. Maybe that is intentional in the writing, and maybe it is just my perception of his character, but I just found myself wanting to move on and get back to Ethan and/or Javier whenever I ended up in Oliver's head. Second, there were a lot of unanswered questions from the story - the author even acknowledges this at the end and states that it is intentional, which I understand, but my mind just wants to know all of the dirty little details, so I hope some of them may be answered in the second book (even if it isn't a true "sequel").

I'm very happy that I read this, and I plan to grab a paperback copy soon because I want to see those illustrations! I hope to see a lot more from this author in the future.

I received an advance reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

sgennis34's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

4.5

zestydragonegg's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

meli_thebookworm16's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

But once a man began negotiating with his shadow, he never slept again.

I had to sit with this one for a bit. And, don’t get me wrong, Earthflown is unequivocally one of the most unique books I’ve read. The worldbuilding is one of a kind; set in a futuristic, dystopian London that has grown vertically after a cataclysmic event where water has become the ultimate commodity, it has flying cars and has people with aptitudes (healers, telekinetics, empaths, firestarters, watercallers, etc). The illustrations, Dear Gods, the illustrations!! Add into the mix a lovely romance (between two of the multiple POVs we get, Ethan and Javier), some (lots) of corporate greed, conflict of interests, monopoly of water by the richest of the rich and technically I should’ve been all over the moon by this. Yet, many times as I was reading I couldn’t help to feel, as we say in spanish ‘el que mucho abarca, poco aprieta’ (which loosely translates as jack of all trades, master of none), and that perhaps tackling so many issues and adding so many ingredients to the mix was being somewhat detrimental to the book itself.

For starters, we get to see in the very first chapter how a murder occurs. However, one of the constants throughout the book is Ollie's relentless and borderline paranoid pursuit (through one of the book's POV) to find out what happened to Tim (the person who got murdered in the first chapter). While I do understand why it was shown from the get-go who exactly murdered Tim and the circumstances of how it transpired (basically giving us a front row seats right away to the psychopathic behavior of who did it, and how this person’s manipulative ways are gonna impact the rest of the story) it does become a little bit tedious to read Ollie’s musings about all the What ifs when we already know the answer.

So, if this makes it sound like this is a book you wouldn't want to read, think again. Despite all of the above, or perhaps because I wanted to get out of the things I didn't quite enjoy first, I can without a doubt say that this book was fascinating. How many times do we get romances between mcs, who are perfect, good people, who deserve the world? Way too many times. It feels unnatural and difficult to connect. No one here is perfect and I wouldn’t catalog anyone as ‘good’ per se, but in one way or another most of them still deserve the world, and for that I LOOOOOVED this book.

And I go to that initial quote, which imho encompasses what every one of our mcs go through. We have Ethan, a healer who works as a ER Dr using his aptitude (powers), who is most definitely not a good person. He himself admits it, he is too tired, doesn’t want to spend unnecessary energy or time on things and/or people, is depressed, prefers to judge a book for its cover, and even though deep down wants a real relationship will use all his spare energy to alienate people before they find him tiresome and leave him. Then we have Javier, a closeted empath, who lives in constant fear of being outed because even though empaths are very rare (or they assume so because there is very little way of knowing if someone is an empath or not) they are considered extremely dangerous with their (potential) abilities to influence others; he is secretive, fearful of his very rich and very powerful family, particularly his very sociopathic twin sister, but still worships the ground she walks on and will bend over backwards to keep her happy, will turn a blind eye to her criminal activity and will do things that don’t sit right with him or even dismiss the importance of some of the horrible things she does. These two together are a recipe for disaster, right? And in a way they are (for the entire world around them), yet their romance is absolutely swoony. They are patient with each other, talk things through, respect boundaries and help each other to assert those boundaries. I absolutely ADORED them.

And Ollie. Ollie, personally I think Ollie needs to start therapy ASAP too lol, but bless his heart he is also doing his best. Despite the issues that I had with his POV, and mentioned above, it is mostly through his eyes that we see everything that is in play, the big picture of this world (the collusion, the conflict of interest, the corruption and cover ups) that is very much like ours but worse, and I personally enjoyed that very much (it's the lawyer in me, sorry). His relationship with Vegas was not perfect, and yet very much *chef's kiss.

On a side note, kudos to how amazingly accurate all the medical talk was. As someone who currently works with doctors (and ER), it clearly showed those 9 months the author spent in emergency-room consults.

The ending is left open, and honestly I didn’t mind that. Because after all, it is a journey about how to reconcile with your own shadow in order to finally feel at ease enough to sleep again for each one of them (Ethan, Javier and Ollie). That is the story.

Can’t wait to read the next installment in The Anatomy of Water Series.

[I received an advance review copy from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]

autumnrevel's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Loved loved loved this book!

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