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willofaleksander 's review for:
A Dark and Drowning Tide
by Allison Saft
hmm! this ended up being just okay for me which is a lil disappointing bc ive decided to stan saft forever after DCTN and being a big lesbo, i was soooo excited for this as her first f/f adult title.
as always, prose and worldbuilding are top notch. saft is so good at building atmospheric settings and the world with its magic was interesting to be in. up until near the end, i also thought the political dynamics of the world were reasonably well built without being too dense or lost in itself.
thatt said, this left me wanting for several reasons. i found that the story seemed to struggle balancing in what i think it tried to present: a sort of locked room whodunit mystery, romance, and a Big Search for Something. or actually maybe i think this could felt more smooth had it been more character driven rather than plot. i think the foundations for more complex side characters were there but went unexplored with lorelei being the antisocial and understandably closed off narrator she is. when there's a cast, i really want to get to know them as a reader thru the MC whether her relationships to them are created or destroyed in the end. with lorelei though, i found that they were all quite stagnant. to me, her self isolation cuts the story off from being More. i just found myself really missing character interaction or dynamic establishment that wasn't just apprehension/hostility/solely plot progression.
same with sylvia and lorelei as the couple. i enjoyed them when i had them but i needed more of them. oddly enough, i kind of wish they argued more? i know that was most of their interactions lol but some of the most genuine points of connection they had to me was when they would sort of tell the other to get off that high horse lol or just get outta their own heads. i loved their rival secretly crushing dynamic and i just wanted more getting to know each other i guess lol. tell me more abt sylvia growing up lonely and her trauma from war! tell me more abt lorelei wanting to be a naturalist and settling for foklorist instead to get her foot in the door. show me how they complement each other in their fears and desires...a girl (me) wants to dream about them being the main focus of the story. side note but i also dont really get why this is an adult title tbh. like imo dctn was spicier and ngl i was excited to see how spicy we could get but this was very very tame u_u
in my toootally uninformed opinion, some of these issues could be helped by alternating povs. i think switching between sylvia and lorelei would have helped with the very different ways they approach the world as a result of status and upbringing.
these points dont detract from this being a good and solid read. i just dream about what it could be! the most Real point of critique i have is the ending. it was definitely rushed? or came off that way, leaving an ending with sorta troubling political implications and not imo, that much satisfaction for where the all the charas ended up. i was so enamored with dctn because of its interrogation of war in a ya fantasy so this direction really surprised me in how it sits kinda badly with me. the fears the people in the setting have about forced assimilation and imperialism are very valid so it was odd to see them kinda swept under the rug with we'll just hope wilhelm is not his dad and sylvia's new abilities cowing everyone into acceptance/obedience. like that's kinda yikes !! as a reader, i have no reason to trust wilhelm, even for the sake of avoiding conflict as sylvia says because theres so much violence to be had in impersialism beyond killing. in the end, lorelei gains some protection but is designated Office Worker and doesnt get to be a naturalist. ziegler wasnt all we thought her to be. maybe it wasnt the best way, but adelheid died without much understanding for her justified motives. heike?? it kind of feels like im being told 'well sometimes things just dont go yr way' which is just not something i like in fiction lol. all in all, it kind of makes me feel like what was the point of all the warning tales about power and themes of injustice if the status quo remains unaltered in the end?
as always, prose and worldbuilding are top notch. saft is so good at building atmospheric settings and the world with its magic was interesting to be in. up until near the end, i also thought the political dynamics of the world were reasonably well built without being too dense or lost in itself.
thatt said, this left me wanting for several reasons. i found that the story seemed to struggle balancing in what i think it tried to present: a sort of locked room whodunit mystery, romance, and a Big Search for Something. or actually maybe i think this could felt more smooth had it been more character driven rather than plot. i think the foundations for more complex side characters were there but went unexplored with lorelei being the antisocial and understandably closed off narrator she is. when there's a cast, i really want to get to know them as a reader thru the MC whether her relationships to them are created or destroyed in the end. with lorelei though, i found that they were all quite stagnant. to me, her self isolation cuts the story off from being More. i just found myself really missing character interaction or dynamic establishment that wasn't just apprehension/hostility/solely plot progression.
same with sylvia and lorelei as the couple. i enjoyed them when i had them but i needed more of them. oddly enough, i kind of wish they argued more? i know that was most of their interactions lol but some of the most genuine points of connection they had to me was when they would sort of tell the other to get off that high horse lol or just get outta their own heads. i loved their rival secretly crushing dynamic and i just wanted more getting to know each other i guess lol. tell me more abt sylvia growing up lonely and her trauma from war! tell me more abt lorelei wanting to be a naturalist and settling for foklorist instead to get her foot in the door. show me how they complement each other in their fears and desires...a girl (me) wants to dream about them being the main focus of the story. side note but i also dont really get why this is an adult title tbh. like imo dctn was spicier and ngl i was excited to see how spicy we could get but this was very very tame u_u
in my toootally uninformed opinion, some of these issues could be helped by alternating povs. i think switching between sylvia and lorelei would have helped with the very different ways they approach the world as a result of status and upbringing.
these points dont detract from this being a good and solid read. i just dream about what it could be! the most Real point of critique i have is the ending. it was definitely rushed? or came off that way, leaving an ending with sorta troubling political implications and not imo, that much satisfaction for where the all the charas ended up. i was so enamored with dctn because of its interrogation of war in a ya fantasy so this direction really surprised me in how it sits kinda badly with me.