Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Curious Tides

I'M DONE. I'M FREE.

There's a reason this book two two weeks for me to finish, and I'm someone who regularly enjoys 500+ page books.

This book is literally just getting extra points for how pretty it is lol

The Worldbuilding
Alright, I do like the magic system. It's interesting and unique, but it's a LOT to take in (genuinely think some powers could've been cut so there's like 2-3 powers per phase) and leaves a LOT of questions.

1- What makes some people more powerful than others?
2- What are the limits of their powers, particularly during their lunar phase? (For example, Eclipse has Collapsing, but it sorta sounds like people can go to town with their powers during their phase)
3-

Speaking of Collapsing-- Are there literally any limits???? Like do people just becoming INSANELY overpowered?

4- What dictates when someone Collapses?

I've also got a lot of questions about the syths, but I'll leave that be for now.

The Premise/Plot
Anyone else feel like they were cheated??? I'm going into spoilers here, but WOW just know I'm annoyed. Also the two POVs was a surprise because the premise made it sound like there's just be Emory's.

LIKE. IT TOOK 100 PAGES FOR THE FIRST BODY TO WASH ASHORE. AND ANOTHER 200 AFTER THAT FOR THE NEXT, AND ANOTHER 100 AFTER. I WAS SO DOWN FOR THE PEOPLE WASHING ASHORE ALIVE ONLY FO BE KILLED SHORTLY AFTER, BUT THAT DIDN'T EVEN FEEL LIKE A MAJOR PART OF THE PLOT

The Selenic Order was criminally underused too??? Like we got one party in 500 pages. She has one brush with high society, and whole yeah Keiran feeds her ego, I'm very surprised the entire Order didn't come into play more.

It takes the book until roughly the 70% mark to pick up. And yes, it's interesting then, but even that started to feel like it dragged 🧍‍♀️

Like seriously, I thought that Keiran died FIVE TIMES before the words "he died" appeared on the page. And the final battle or whatever you wanna call it was so... strange? Like the stakes were not established. Emory is like "oh no!!! The umbrae!!! They're going outside!!!!" Girlie YOU SAW KAI SAY "SLEEP" AND THEY DISSAPPEARED LIKE IT WAS NOTHING THEY'RE GOING TO BE FINE

Also the only plot twist I didn't get was the one about the Collapsing. Seriously, everything was painfully obvious. Like, if a character is mentioned once, you KNOW they come back and can immediately piece together where they go. So annoying.

The Characters
Prepare for Emory slander because wow I HATED her. Seriously, SHE WAS SO DUMB. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING FOR ONE MINUTE.

DIVING INTO THE DOOR AND NOT HAVING AN ESTABLISHED WAY OUT???? YOU WENT INTO ANOTHER W O R L D. LIKE. NO WAY. AND I CANNOT STAND HER FOR MANIPULATING BAZ LIKE SHE DID.

I swear there's a million instances of her just not THINKING.
Plus

her being a Tidecaller got very old very fast. I could not care. Ofc she's super super super powerful. It's ridiculous.

Her romances annoyed me 😌 couldn't care less about what she thought about Keiran

I love Baz ❤️. Wish his powers were explained more, though. (Like, seriously, what are the limits?) But he's an absolute sweetheart and I just want the best for him. His POV was WAYYY more interesting than Emory's, even though both tended to drag.

Also Romie??? Why didn't we get a book with her or something??? Like it makes the grief at the beginning feel so hollow. We don't know her at ALL and I found it hard to care.

The Prose
This is here mostly because I have questions. The prose itself was usually fine, but there's a few times where I just sat there like "what."

For example, WHY ARE THE DREAMS IN PRESENT TENSE WHILE EVERYTHING ELSE IS PAST. I still do not understand. I've tried thinking about it because obviously this book saw an editor, so someone oked the mid-chapter tense change. It was just very... Weird?

Ooooh. And the poems! It happened like 2-3 times but I still thought it very odd. We'd get a normal paragraph and then
Suddenly
It changes
To this and I do not know why?? I also don't get the effect it's supposed to have.

Sometimes the phrases were weird too, like "slithered over her bones" or "flavor of nightmares."

I think that's all, but yeah, I didn't have a fun time with this book.

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slow-paced

4.0

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