Reviews with content warning for Death - The Mountain in the Sea

This book was the most FRUSTRATING read ever. The premise is very good! Modern sci fi on the moralities of AI and sentience, exploring our destruction of the planet (specifically the oceans) and the impact that has on those remaining in those spaces, both humans on the coast and all animals and creatures who live there too. I personally was excited to explore the idea that actopuses had developed some level of sentience or intelligence, society, culture etc. But MY GOD. The writing. Was so painful. And the plot was so loose and wibbly I was lost at sea (lol) pretty much constantly.

First off, the characterisation was bizarre. Ha was a very odd choice for a main character, as I never felt like I actually knew her. She's a scientist, but I'm still not 100% sure I understand anything about her studies other than she likes fish and studies communication and went to Oxford and Cambridge. There is this whole plot line about her falling madly in love with this dude who never paid any attention to her, and it made her go "crazy" and gave her Super Depression that she describes as looking up at the sun and being able to stare at it because nothing was bright anymore. Edgy. Then it turns out (mild spoiler but this didnt mean anything to me when it was revealed even though i think it was meant to)

that she had had sex with this dude once, but he totally took advantage of her and never spoke to her again afterwards.

She admits this late in the plot like its something she feels huge shame around and like, fair, I can imagine how that hurt emotionally but LIFE CHANGING???? What did this add to her character???? In my head it totally undermined her as this strong independent woman the author was trying to present like, maybe that was the point? Oh look how human and hurt she was and now she's a stone cold empty woman. What was I meant to learn.

This book was also the ultimate lesson in telling not showing, and it was arguably the worst part. Everytime we were introduced to a new idea or feeling, a character would then explain it to us, or the narrator would tell us exactly what was going on. I wasn't able to form any of my own opinions because I had this constant voice mansplaining every tiny detail to me. The narration had no clear voice either, and often we'd skip descriptions all together and just have pages of dialogue or huge monologues from single characters. We'd also have whole sentences or paragraphs just... repeated later on. There is a scene with Evrim where Ha describes him as sexless and god-like and then we just get that description again near the end. Ha's weird trauma from the island is described to us by the narrator and then she repeats it again to Evrim. Dude, everything you write should be for the reader - WHY do you share this now? What has changed since last time? (spoilers, nothing, I think he just wanted to emphasise a dramatic piece of writing). All very annoying.

Rustem. Where did my boy Rustem go. I liked his storyline, it was interesting and intriguing and because it wasn't the main one I felt like I had more freedom to think and use my brain to try and work out what was going on. But

it just ENDS?????? Who was the random man???? Who was the shiny woman?????? What happened?????????????

.

Also side point. Why was there so much nakedness. My guy my dude my man, stop putting Altantsetseg in the goo totally nude. Why is she naked. Why is she in goo. Stop it man, free her.

And finally. The end. I'm not even gonna put this in spoilers so just stop reading this if you really wanna read this book I guess but honestly..... NOTHING HAPPENS.
What the hell was that "plot twist" with Altantsetseg??????? I legit almost missed it it went so quickly. No lead up, no oh wow yeah that all lead to this! moment. Nothing. Also what happened with the octopuses????? Why was Ha a weird chosen one? Why kill off the doctor lady and not make her a giant evil woman who was in this all for a whole other plan all along??? She was just an idiot!!!!! That's the whole plot!!!!!!!!! WHAT HAPPENED???????

So yes. That's that I guess, sorry Ray please don't read this review lol but also please get a better publisher/editor because the idea had so much promise and they just let you wiggle along your plot until you'd rinsed it dry and then let you just slap a plaster on it and call it an ending. Oh man.

Content Warnings

meemawreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative 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? No

4.0

Men generally aren't socialized to imagine their existence outside their own POV or predict the emotions and actions of people who aren't like them just to survive, so I usually don't like their writing as much 🙆🏼‍♀️
That's why a book by a male author that doesn't annoy the doodoo out of me deserves extra praise! Thank you, Ray, for writing a book I enjoyed! We follow a marine biologist, Ha Nguyen, and other interesting side characters as a future world researches the existence of superintelligent octopi and their ability to possibly communicate with humans. It touches on lots of philosophy without dwelling too long: what makes a human human? What would communication in other species look like? Are humans capable of interacting with another sapiens without destroying them? At times it got a bit in the weeds on the science and I was bored, that's why I say my enjoyment of listening to it was probably three taters, but the way it made me think even after the book was done bumped it to four 🥔🥔🥔🥔/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

Content Warnings

pezzo's review against another edition

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challenging informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

juksu's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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

Content Warnings

boglord's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense 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

4.0

Content Warnings

johnnyboy836's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

maggiemac23's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

barbsantos's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

This book promises developed octopuses and deliveres a philosophical discussion on conscience. I wanted to see.l more octopuses and a stronger conclusion of the discovery plot. There is ALOT of boring philosophical dialogue, which I probably wouldn't mind so much if I was not here for the discovery of developed octopuses. Some story lines seem unnecessary, like Eikos'. While his story line builds the world, it could be completely cut out and the book would still be the same.

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