A review by atticmoth
the half-drowned by Trynne Delaney

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

In my opinion, a good rule of thumb for experimental fiction is that the audience shouldn’t be questioning what happened, but why it happened. The Half-Drowned left me too busy trying to figure out what the concrete events of the narrative were to indulge in the rich and multilayered symbolism woven into it. The Half-Drowned was set at a post-apocalyptic commune set on the edge of the sea which reminded me of the Karen Russell short story “The Gondoliers”. The concept was intriguing, especially as a reference to Black Loyalist refugees in New Brunswick. I also like that Delaney let the world-building take a backseat to the character drama, between a pair of siblings and their respective partners. But the way the story is told is in this fractured style found in a lot of contemporary science fiction that I don’t find very interesting or clever. It’s hard to tell what’s going on because it’s almost intentionally obscure. The narrative shifts between first, second and third person (shared between three or more characters, I couldn’t tell) for no apparent reason. I also find it kind of unsubtle when science fiction authors use the world they construct as exemplary or aspirational, like when Delaney randomly uses therapy-speak like “to make and hold space for our communities to move through responsibility to each other.” Is this climate fiction or a yoga class?