A review by maaikereadsbooks_
Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Many thanks to Penguin Random House Children’s UK and Natasha Bowen for the advanced copy of Soul of the Deep via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel. 

Soul of the Deep is the sequel to Skin of the Sea. I had not realised this upon beginning the book and found it difficult to get into the story and would say it’s difficult to read as a stand-alone. I ended up getting Skin of the Sea from the library, reading it, and then picking up Soul of the Deep again at 25% in and it finally made sense. 

Unlike the previous book, the author was more adept at weaving the folk tales and histories into a compelling narrative in this sequel. In the previous book, the information felt a bit ‘crammed in’ and forced, but it flowed more naturally into a cohesive narrative in this story. 

Although the story was interesting, it still lacked something for me. I prefer character development over plot in my reading, and this book is definitely much more plot-driven than character-driven. There is very little character development. Although there is talk of feelings and love between different characters, everything feels very shallow, and although there are many memory scenes played out, even these feel opaque and lack depth of feeling. 

For plot and research, this book is rich and well-thought-out. For character-development and emotion, however, it is lacking and flat. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings